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THE

NO-BREAKFAST PLAN

AND

THE FASTING-CURE

EDWARD HOOKER DEWEY, M D

MEADVILLE, PA., U S A.: PUBLISHED BY THE AUTHOR 1900

COPYRIGHT, 1900, BY EDWARD HOOKER DEWEY

REGISTERED AT STATIONERS' HALL, LONDON, ENGLAND

All Rights Reserved.

TO

GEORGE S KEITH, M.D., LL.D., F.R.C.P.E., SCOTLAND,

A RABAGLIATI, M.A., M.D., F.R.C.P., EDINBURGH,

AND

ALEXANDER HAIG, M.A., M.D., OXON., F.R.C.P., LONDON, ENGLAND,

WHO HAVE COMMENDED THE WRITINGS OF THE AUTHOR IN THEIR OWN PUBLISHED

WORKS,

THIS BOOK IS

GRATEFULLY DEDICATED

PREFACE

This volume is a history, or a story, of an evolution in the professional care of the sick It begins in

inexperience and in a haze of medical superstition, and ends with a faith that Nature is the all in all in the cure

of disease The hygiene unfolded is both original and revolutionary: its practicality is of the largest, and itsphysiology beyond any possible question The reader is assured in advance that every line of this volume hasbeen written with conviction at white heat, that enforced food in sickness and the drug that corrodes areprofessional barbarisms unworthy of the times in which we live

Introduction Army experiences in the Civil War Early years in general practice Difficulties

encountered Medicinal treatment found wanting as a means to superior professional success 13

A case of typhoid fever that revolutionized the Author's faith and practice A cure without drugs, withoutfood Resulting studies of Nature in disease Illustrative cases A crucial experience in a case of diphtheria inthe Author's family 26

VII

Digestive conditions Taste relish Hunger relish The moral science involved in digestion as a new

study Cheer as a digestive power Its contagiousness The need of higher life in the home as a matter ofbetter health Cheer as a duty 81

is more easily performed and for more hours without a breakfast 85

IX

The utility of slow eating and thorough mastication unusually illustrated by Mr Horace Fletcher, the

author What should we eat? The use of fruit from a physiological standpoint 105

X

Landscape-gardening upon the human face A pen-picture Unrecognized suicide Absurdity of the use ofdrugs to cure diseases A case of blood-letting Mission of homoeopathy Predigested foods 110

THE FASTING-CURE

The forty-two day fast of Mr W W C Cowen, of Warrensburg, Ill., and its successful end Press

account The twenty-eight day fast of Mr Milton Rathbun, of New York, and its successful end Pressaccount A second fast of Mr Milton Rathbun, of thirty-five days, in the interest of science, and its successfulend Press account Adverse comments of Dr George N Shrady, an eminent New York physician 117XII

The remarkable fast of forty-five days of Miss Estella Kuenzel, of Philadelphia, resulting in a complete cure

of a case of melancholia Press accounts A still more remarkable fast, of fifty days, of Mr Leonard Thress,

of Philadelphia, resulting in a complete cure of a bad case of general dropsy Press accounts General dropsy

in a woman of seventy-six relieved by a fifteen-day fast, with the cure permanent Rev Dalrymple's fast ofthirty-nine and one-half days without interruption of pastoral duties 136

XIII

Insanity A study from a new point of view Its radical cure deemed probable in most cases by protractedfasts Feeding the insane as practised in the hospitals sharply criticised Some direct words to physicians incharge 157

XIV

The evolution of obesity, and its easy relief by fasting Overweight prevented by a limitation of the dailyfood and without lessening any of the powers or energies The evolution and prevention of apoplexy 177XV

Chronic alcoholism The evolution of the drunkard His complete, easy, rational cure by fasting No case sograve as to be beyond cure by this means Asthma; Its cure through dietary means A railroad tragedy Theneed of railroad men to save their brains from needless waste of energy in their stomachs An illustrativecase Some of the Author's troubles from the ignorance of the people The death of Mrs Myers, of

Philadelphia, on the thirty-fifth day of her fast Adverse press accounts and comments Adverse comments ofProf H C Wood, M D., L L D., on fasting and fasters 183

XVI

A successful sixty-day fast under the Author's care More about predigested foods Bathing from a

physiological standpoint The error of drinking water without thirst Some earnest words to the mothers ofthis land What the No-breakfast Plan means for them and their children Concluding words 199

ILLUSTRATIONS

PORTRAIT OF THE AUTHOR Frontispiece.

MRS A M LICHTENHAHN, THIRTY-SIXTH DAY WITHOUT FOOD Opposite p 54

REV GEORGE SHERMAN RICHARDS " 94

MRS E A QUIGGLE " 104

MR MILTON RATHBUN SHORTLY AFTER HIS FAST " 132

MISS E F KUENZEL, FORTY-FIRST DAY OF FAST " 146

MR LEONARD THRESS, FIFTIETH DAY OF FAST " 152

MISS E W A WESTING, FORTIETH DAY OF FAST " 154

THE NO-BREAKFAST PLAN

I

A hygiene that claims to be new and of the greatest practicality, and certainly revolutionary in its application,would seem to require something of its origin and development to excite the interest of the intelligent reader.Methods in health culture are about as numerous as the individuals who find some method necessary for thehealth: taking something, doing something for the health is the burden of lives almost innumerable Very fewpeople are so well that some improvement is not desirable

The literature on what to eat and not to eat, what to do and not to do, on medicines that convert human

stomachs into drug-stores, is simply boundless If we believe all we read, we must consider the location weare in before we can safely draw the breath of life; we must not cool our parched throats without the certificate

of the microscope We must not eat without an ultimate analysis of each item of the bill of fare, as we wouldtake an account of stock before ordering fresh goods; and this without ever knowing how much lime we needfor the bones, iron for the blood, phosphorus for the brain, or nitrogen for the muscles In short, there is death

in the air we breathe, death in the food we eat, death in the water we drink, until, verily, we seem to walk ourways of life in the very valley and shadow of death, ever subject to the attack of hobgoblins of disease

How many lives would go down in despair but for the miracles of cure promised in the public prints, even inour best journals and monthlies, we cannot know It is the hope for better things that sustains our lives; suicidenever occurs until all hope has departed Even our medical journals are heavily padded with pages of newremedies whose use involves the most amazing credulity Perhaps it is well, in the absence of a sound

physiological hygiene, that the people who are sick and afflicted shall be buoyed up by fresh, printed

promises Perhaps it is also well for the physician to be able to go into the rooms of the sick inspired from theadvertising pages of his favorite medical journals

Are they not new stars of hope to both physician and the people? Why should we not hope when new

remedies are multiplying in such infinite excess over newly discovered diseases? New diseases? What is there

essentially new that can be treated with remedies, in the coated tongues, foul mouths, high temperature andpulse, pain, discomfort, and acute aversion to food, that is to be found in the rooms of the sick? Are therereally specifics for these conditions?

The hygiene to be unfolded in these pages is so new, so revolutionary, that its first impress has never failed toexcite every form of opposition known to language, and yet its practicality is so great that it is rarely

questioned by those who fairly test it It has not been found wanting in its physiology, nor has it failed to growwherever it has found lodgement

The origin and development of this new way in health culture seem to require something of professionalautobiography, that it may be seen that it is a matter of evolution and not of chance, not a fad that has only itspassing hour

After receiving my medical degree from the University of Michigan, and serving a term as house physician tothe U S Marine Hospital at Detroit, Michigan, I entered one of the large army hospitals at Chattanooga,Tenn., at the beginning of the Sherman campaign in Georgia, where I found a ward of eighty sick and

wounded soldiers fresh from the battle of Resacea My professional fitness for duties so grave and so large in

extent was of a very questionable order, and I did not in the least overestimate it.

It had not escaped my notice, even before I began the study of medicine, that whether disease were coaxedwith doses too small for mathematical estimate, or whether blown out with solid shot or blown up with shells,the percentage of recoveries seemed to be about the same regardless of the form of treatment

I was reared in a large family in a country home, several miles from a physician, where all but the severestsicknesses were treated with herb-tea dosage, and this was true of all other country homes With all this inmind I had begun the study of medicine with a good deal less than the average faith in the utility of dosage,and it was not enlarged by my professor of materia medica

I entered upon my serious duties as did good, rare, old Bunyan into his pulpit, with a feeling fairly oppressivethat I was "the least of all the saints." My materia medica was in my vest pocket; my small library in my head,with its contents in a very hazy condition With a weak memory for details, and marked inability to possesstruth except by the slow process of digestion and assimilation, my brain was more a machine-shop than awareroom; hence capacity of retail dealing was of the smallest I was not in the least conscious at this timethat a large wareroom amply stored by virtue of a retentive memory was not the most needed as an equipmentfor all the practical affairs of life I have ever found it necessary to dodge some memories, when there waslack of time to endure a hailstorm of details

That I did not become a danger to the hapless sick and wounded only less than their diseases and wounds, waswholly due to my small materia medica, to utter lack of pride in knowledge that had not become a power with

me, and to that lofty ambition for professional success which moved me to seize aid from no matter where orwhom, as the drowning man a straw

It was my great professional fortune that the medical staff of this hospital of more than a thousand cots was of

a very high order of ability and experience, and that I entered at the beginning of a campaign in which formore than three months there was a fitful roar of artillery and rattle of musketry every day; hence a continuousinflux to cots vacated by deaths or recoveries

In all respects it was the best equipped hospital for professional experience of any that I knew anything about.There was one rigid rule that I believe was not carried out in any other hospital: post-mortems in all cases,numbering from one to a dozen daily, and all made with a thoroughness I have never seen in private practice.The features of my hospital service that impressed me most were the post-mortem revelations and the diversetreatments for the same disease I soon found that, no matter what the disease, every surgeon was a law tohimself as to the quality, quantity, and times of his doses, with the mortality in the wards apparently about thesame

Post-mortem examinations often revealed chronic diseases whose existence could not have been suspectedduring life, and yet had made death inevitable

Another advantage in army hospital practice was the stability of the position and the absence of the harassinganxiety of friends, thus affording the highest possibilities of the judgment and reason And still anotheradvantage was the high social relations existing between the medical officers, due to the absence of all causesfor jealousy, neither the position nor salary depending on superior endowments or professional success

I was aware that, in spite of my lack of experience and the presence of a most painful sense of general

insufficiency, my sick and wounded were about as safe in my hands from professional harm, even from thefirst, as the patients of the most experienced medical officer in the hospital

With high professional ideals, with no ability to make use of hazy conceptions or ideas, having no pride in

knowledge that had not become my own, I began at once to reinforce myself from the experience and wisdom

of my brother officers, whose advisory services were always readily and kindly rendered

From the first and all through my military service my severely sick had the advantage of all the borrowed skilland experience I could command As for surgical operations, they were all performed in the presence of most

of the medical staff, some of whom were of great experience

The surgery of the army hospitals of 1864 was of the highest character in skill and in careful attention to allthe details involved, and the fatalities were generally due to the gravity of the wounds requiring operationsand lack of constitutional power for recovery, rather than to the absence of the germ-killer At that time themicrobe was not a factor in the probabilities of life or death In all else the care of the wounds could hardly besurpassed

As for the medicinal treatment of my sick, it was unsatisfactory from first to last After all the years since Icannot believe that, except for the relief of pain, any patient was made better by my dosage; and in all

fatalities the post-mortem revealed the fact that the wisest dosage would have been without avail

But in the study of the history of disease as revealed by symptoms my hospital experience was invaluable Ihave since found that my greatest service at the beds of the sick is as an interpreter of symptoms rather than avender of drugs The friends of the sick read indications for good or bad with wonderful acuteness, as a rule;and I have rarely found myself mistaken in my ability to read the condition of patients in the faces of thefriends, even before I enter the rooms of the sick

As my experience enlarged so did my faith in Nature; and, since there was no similarity in the quality, sizes,and times of the doses for like diseases, my faith in mere remedies gradually declined

After a year and a half of large opportunities to study the diseases of men in the early prime of life, in the care

of the simple surgery of shot and shell, I left the army with such familiarity with grave diseases and death invarious forms as to enable me ever after to retain complete self-possession in the presence of dying beds inprivate practice

I began the general practice of medicine in Meadville in the autumn of 1866 Among the many physicianslocated in the city at that time were men of ability and large experience There were those who administeredwith sublime faith doses too small for mathematical estimate; those who with equal faith administered boluses

to the throat's capacity for deglutition; those who fully believed in whiskey as nourishment, that milk is liquidfood, and who with tremendous faith and forceful hands administered both until human stomachs were

reduced to barren wastes and death would result from starvation aggravated by disease

Most of the cases of disease that fall to the care of the physician are trivial, self-limited, and rapidly recoverunder even the most crucifying dosages; Nature really winning the victories, the physician carrying off thehonors

This is so nearly true that it may be stated that, aside from the domain of surgery, professional success in thegeneral sense depends upon the personal qualities and character of the physician rather than the achievements

of the materia medica

People have a confidence in the power of medicine to cure disease scarcely less than the dusky warrior has inthe Indian medicine-lodge of the Western wilderness, and a confidence about as void of reason

The physician goes into the rooms of the sick held to the severest accountability in the matter of dosage; andthe larger his own faith in medicines the greater his task; and, if he is of my own, the so-called "old school,"

or Allopathic, the more dangerous he is to the curing efforts of Nature

With the people the disease is simply an attack, and not the summing up of the results of violated laws going

on perhaps from birth With the people the symptoms are merely evidences of destruction, and not the visibleefforts to restore the normal condition Hence the failures to relieve always raise more or less questioning,among friends in painful concern, as to the ability of the physician to discharge his grave duties

This unreasoning, unreasonable "blind faith" in remedial means is as strong in the most intelligent as in themost ignorant, and it has ever given me more trouble than the care of the sick Another serious complication

of the sick-room arises from near-by friends who are very certain that their own physicians are better fitted byfar for the serious work of prescribing for the sick

In addition to the serious work of attacking the symptoms of disease as so many foes to life, there is also acare as to what unbidden food shall go into unbidden stomachs, that the system shall be supported while lifeseems to be in the hands of its greatest enemy

The universal conception of disease as a foe to life, and not as a rational process of cure; the boundless faith inremedies as means to resist the attack, revealed by symptoms, makes the professional care of the sick thegravest of all human occupations, and the most trying to both head and heart

With all these taxing conditions confronting me, I opened an office in a field which seemed to be more thanoccupied by men of large experience

With all my army experience I still had a hazy conception as to Nature in disease That the vital forces neededthe support of all the food the stomach of the sick could dispose of, was not a question of the remotest

consideration That medicine did in some way act to cure disease I could not fully question

I was now to enter a service in which, from the care of infancy in its first breathings to old age in its last,every resource of the materia medica, of the reason, judgment, and of the soul itself, was to be called in inevery grave case, and to be held to a responsibility measured by preposterous faith in medicines

I entered upon my duties with a determination to win professional success by the most thorough attention toall the details of service upon the sick and their friends, and I confined my efforts almost wholly to acutecases None of my professional colleagues were winning laurels by the treatment of chronic diseases, and nothaving faith in drugs for such I had my scruples about fees for failures that seemed inevitable

And yet with the most painstaking service fortune would play with me at times in the most heartless manner

At one time four of my adult patients were awaiting burial within the radius of a half mile As they were allphysical wrecks, and died after short illnesses, there could be no question raised in any just sense as to thecharacter of my services, but the fatalities were scored against me Such fortune would be annihilating but forthe fatalities inevitable with all practitioners

For full ten years I visited the sick and dosed them according to the books, but with far less force of hands andfaith than any of my brethren, and all were enjoined to take nourishment to keep up the strength for thecombat with disease

My doses were confined to only a few Sampsons of the materia medica, and these were administered with awatching for favorable results that could hardly be surpassed, and yet always with disappointment

I was innocent enough to believe that a large practice could only be built up by the most painstaking andpersistent effort; later on I found that a large practice was but little dependent upon the skill and learningdisplayed in the sick-room One physician could immediately secure a large patronage because she was awoman; another, because he belonged to this or that nationality, or there was something in the personal outfitrather than in the professional that incited large hopes for the ailing

In all my cases of acute sickness there was always a wasting of the body no matter how much they were fed; alike increase of general strength when a normal desire for food occurred no matter how little they were fed Isaw this with eyesight only; but I saw with insight that a large practice could be carried on by doctors tooignorant to know that there was an alphabet in medical science.

I was not then so fully aware of the depths of ignorance among the people as to what cures disease, did notknow that faith in doses was so large, as child-like even with the most cultured as with the ignorant I was not

so well aware, as I became later, that the physician himself must have such energy of faith in the materiamedica as to reveal it in every line of his countenance when in the rooms of the sick

As the years went on, my faith in remedies did not increase; but I had to dose to meet the superstitious needs

of the people My practice, though far short of what it seemed to merit from the pains bestowed upon it, waslarge enough for all the needs of profitable study had I been in a condition for thought and reflection It wasnot to my encouragement that there were those doing a far larger business with doses simply crucifying, andbecause crucifying, a far larger attendance was the direct result

I now see, as I did not then so clearly, that Nature's victories are often won against the desperate odds oftreatments that are simply barbarous; and yet Nature is so powerful, so persistent in the attempts to right allher wrongs, that she wins the victory in the great majority of cases no matter how severely she may be taxedwith means that hinder The great majority of the severely sick of a hundred years ago recovered in spite ofthe bloody lancet and treatments that are the barbarism of to-day

II

I was called one day to one of the families of the poorest of the poor, where I found a sick case that for once in

my life set me to thinking The patient was a sallow, overgrown girl in early maturity, with a history of severalmonths of digestive and other troubles I found a very sick patient, so sick that for a period of three weeks noteven one drink of water was retained, not one dose of medicine, and it was not until several more days thatwater could be borne When finally water could be retained my patient seemed brighter in mind, the

complexion was clearer, and she seemed actually stronger As for the tongue, which at first was heavilycoated, the improvement was striking; while the breath, utterly foul at first, was strikingly less offensive Inevery way the patient was very much better

I was so surprised at this that I determined at once to let the good work go on on Nature's own terms, and so itdid until about the thirty-fifth day, when there was a call, not for the undertaker, but for food, a call thatmarked the close of the disease The pulse and temperature had become normal, and there was a tongue asclean as the tongue of a nursing infant

Up to this time this was the most severely sick case I ever had that recovered, and yet with not apparentlymore wasting of the body than with other cases of as protracted sickness in which more or less food was given

and retained And all this with only water for thirst until hunger came and a complete cure!

Such ignoring of medical faith and practice, of the accumulated wisdom and experience of all medical history,

I had never seen before Had the patient been able to take both food and medicine, and I had prohibited, and

by chance death had occurred, I would have been held guilty of actually putting the patient to death deathfrom starvation Feed, feed the sick whether or not, say all the doctors, say all the books, to support strength or

to keep life in the body, and yet Nature was absurd enough to ignore all human practice evolved from

experience, and in her own way to support vital power while curing the disease

I could recall a great many cases in which because of intense aversion to food patients had been sick for manydays, and even weeks, with not enough nourishment taken to account for the support of vital power; but thefact did not raise a question with me

The effect of this case upon my mind was so profound that I began to apply the same methods in Nature toother patients, and with the same general results The body, of course, would waste during the time of

sickness; but so did the bodies of sick that were fed As for medicines, they were utterly ignored except wherepain was to be relieved, though unmedicated doses were alike a necessity with all Not a single medicine wasgiven except for pain, and occasionally in cases in which I had reason to think the entire digestive tract needed

a general clearing of foul sewage Thence on, that supreme work, the cure of disease, in my hands became thework of Nature only

In a general practice I was able to carry out the non-feeding plan by permitting the various meat teas or thecereal broths, none of which can be taken by the severely sick in quantities to do harm By withholding milk Iwas enabled to secure all the fasting Nature required, while satisfying the ever-anxious friends with tea andbroth diversions

This was a line of investigation that I felt ought to be of the deepest interest to every thinking, high-mindedphysician, to every intelligent layman; and very early the evidences of the utility of withholding food from thesick during the entire time of absence of desire for it, its absolute safety, were beyond any questioning

I had no fatalities that were apparently in any way due to the enforced lack of food In cases of chronic disease

in which death was inevitable, such as cancer, consumption, etc., patients were permitted to take what theycould with the least offence to the sense of relish In every case of recovery there was a history of increasinggeneral strength as the disease declined, of an actual increase of vital power without the support of food thathad no more relish than the dose that crucified the nerves of taste

In all America milk is the chief reliance to support vital power when no other food can be taken Milk in onestage of normal digestion gets into the form of tough curds ready for the press, and curds should always bethoroughly masticated before swallowing

Sir William Roberts, of England, in his exhaustive work on Digestion and Diet, asserts that milk-curds are not

digested in the stomach during sickness, but are forced into the duodenum, where, he asserts, they are

digested, but he gives no reason for his faith that there is power to digest in the duodenum where there is none

in the stomach

It was not difficult to make the mothers in the homes understand that taking milk by the drink was equivalent

to swallowing green cheese-curds without due mastication

With these hygienic conceptions and methods I continued to visit the sick as a mere witness of Nature's power

in disease rather than as an investigator, yet without being able to understand the secret of the support of vitalpower without food But whatever risk there might be, or how strong my faith when my patrons were thesubjects of what might be called foolhardy experiments, there came a time when this faith was to have theseverest of all tests

An epidemic of diphtheria broke out among my nearest neighbors, and after four deaths in as many familieswithin a stone's throw of my residence a son of mine aged three years was taken I had never given him in allhis life even a cross look, and whatever sin there was in making idols of children in this I was the worst of allsinners, and I did not quite believe, as some Christian folks would have me, that my happiness through himwas not the very incense of gratitude to the great Author for the gift of such a treasure of the heart

In my hour of trial two of my ablest and most experienced medical friends came to me Quinine and iron insolution were their verdict and the little throat was not copper-lined; and, in addition, all the strong whiskeypossible to force into the stomach: all this would have required manacled wrists and the prying apart of setjaws He had never received anything from me more violent than caresses, and this abomination of dosagewas to be sent down a bleeding, ulcerated way, over raw surfaces that would writhe and quiver under the

added torture This would not be rational treatment for ulcerations on the body, and the loss of strengththrough resistance and structural injury to the throat had no promise of redemption except in the minds of mymedical friends.

It happened that I left home without getting the prescription filled, and, not getting back as soon as expected,the anxious wife procured the medicines and succeeded in getting one dose into the stomach, and also inraising a nervous hurricane that took an hour to allay She was then informed that such a dose would be crueleven to a horse Thence on he took nothing into his stomach but the water that thirst compelled, and a littledosage with it to meet the mother's need; and so I stood beside the suffering idol of my heart, with the entiremedical world against me strong enough, only rejoicing in my strength to defend him against the barbarism

of authorized treatment My only comfort was that in his time of supreme need I could give him supremekindness, and if death must come there would not be the additional laceration of avoidable cruelty inflicted;and Nature, with every possible aid that could add comfort to the suffering body, won the victory

Since then the medical world has advanced to antitoxin as a specific, leaving me nearly alone to ploddingways that are by sight and not by faith That the treatment of my sick son in the absence of the only supposedspecific was in advance of my time, the medical world cannot now question

As the months and years went on, it so happened that all my fatalities were of a character as not to involve inthe least suggestions of starvation, while the recoveries were a series of demonstrations as clear as anything inmathematics, of evolving strength of all the muscles, of all the senses and faculties, as the disease declined

No physician whose practice has been extensive has failed to have had cases in which the same changesoccurred, and in which the amount of food taken did not explain this general increase of strength

Believing I had made a most important discovery in physiology, one that would revolutionize the dietetictreatment of the sick, if not ultimately abolish it, my visits to the sick became of unsurpassed interest, I

watched every possible change as an unfolding of new life, seeing the physical changes only as I would seethe swelling buds evolve into the leaves or flowers, reading the soul- and mind-changes in the more radiantlines of expression

I saw all these things with the naked eye, and more and more marvelled at the bulk of our materia medicas,the size of our drug-stores, and the space given to healing powers in all public and medical prints

For years I saw my patients grow into the strength of health without the slightest clue to the mystery, until I

chanced to open a new edition of Yeo's Physiology at the page where I found this table of the estimated losses

that occur in death after starvation:

Fat 97 per cent Muscle 30 " Liver 56 " Spleen 63 " Blood 17 " Nerve-centres 0

And light came as if the sun had suddenly appeared in the zenith at midnight Instantly I saw in human bodies

a vast reserve of predigested food, with the brain in possession of power so to absorb as to maintain structuralintegrity in the absence of food or power to digest it This eliminated the brain entirely as an organ that needs

to be fed or that can be fed from light-diet kitchens in times of acute sickness Only in this self-feeding power

of the brain is found the explanation of its functional clearness where bodies have become skeletons

I could now go into the rooms of the sick with a formula that explained all the mysteries of the maintenanceand support of vital power and cure of disease, and that was of practical avail I now knew that there could be

no death from starvation until the body was reduced to the skeleton condition; that therefore for structuralintegrity, for functional clearness, the brain has no need of food when disease has abolished the desire for it Isthere any other way to explain the power to make wills with whispering lips in the very hour of death, even inthe last moments of life, that the law recognizes as valid?

I could now know that to die of starvation is a matter not of days, but of weeks and months; certainly a periodfar beyond the average time of recovery from acute disease.

III

There fell to my care a very much worn-out mother, who took to her bed with an attack of inflammatoryrheumatism, with the joints so involved as to require the handling of a trained nurse The agony was such thatthe hypodermic needle was required to make existence endurable, and it was used with the idea that the brainwould be less injured by the remedy than by the agony with its inevitable loss of sleep

I know of no disease in which treatment has been more savage than in this The remedies in common use atthat time were mainly new and of supposed specific powers; but they were so violent, and proved to be sofutile, that they have all been given up since by the majority of the profession

As the days went on the disease declined in spite of the enforced comfort through the needle; there were easiermovements, a clearing of the skin from sallow to a tint of redness, and finally, after a month, the armchaircould be used for a change

On the morning of the forty-sixth day there was revealed in the face the perfect color of health, and happinessmarked every line of the expression There was ability to walk through several rooms of her home But it wasnot until the afternoon that the first food was desired and taken, and never before was plain bread and butter,the supreme objects of desire, so relished In the following few months there was an actual gain of fortypounds

My next marked case is a wonderful illustration of the self-feeding power of the brain to meet an emergency,and a revelation, also, of the possible limitations of the starvation period This was the case of a frail, spareboy of four years, whose stomach was so disorganized by a drink of solution of caustic potash that not even aswallow of water could be retained He died on the seventy-fifth day of his fast, with the mind clear to the lasthour, and with apparently nothing of the body left but bones, ligaments, and a thin skin; and yet the brain hadlost neither weight nor functional clearness

In another city a similar accident happened to a child of about the same age, in whom it took three months forthe brain to exhaust entirely the available body-food

I will now enter upon a study of the brain and its powers along these lines, to be enlivened by illustrativeevidence What reason and physiology had I with me that I should use methods in the sick-room wherein theentire medical world was against me, and with severest condemnation?

The head is the power-house of the human plant, with the brain the dynamo as the source of every possiblehuman energy We think, love, hate, admire, labor with our hands, taste, hear, smell, see, and feel through thebrain Broken bones and wounds heal, diseases are cured through energy evolved in the brain or the brainsystem as a whole The other so-called vital organs and the muscles are only as so many machines that are run

by the brain power, with the stomach an exceedingly important machine That powers so rare do not originate

in the bones, ligaments, muscles, or fats, does not need argument; that when the nerve-trunks that supply thearm or leg are severed power of movement and feeling is lost, is known to all; and equally would the power ofthe stomach be abolished were the nerve-trunks cut off In a general way, then, it may be stated that thestrength of the body is directly as the strength of the brain

With this physiology, who in or out of the medical profession can fail to see clearly that the digestion of even

an atom of food is a tax upon the strength of the brain for whatever of power needed by the stomach, themachine, for this purpose? Unless it can be proved that the stomach has powers not derived from the brainsystem, this will have to be admitted

How is the strength kept up in the light of this physiology? The universal belief is that it is kept up by thedaily food In proportion to the prostration of sickness, so are physicians anxious to conserve the energies byworking the stomach to the limit of its powers.

The impression that there must be something digested to support the vitality of the system is a belief, a

conviction that has always been too self-evident to suggest a doubt

If the well need food to keep up the strength, the sick need it all the more; this is the logic that has beendisplayed upon this question Let us keep it clear in mind that, if the nerves going to the stomach are severed,

paralysis will result as in the case of the arm, in order more definitely to conceive the stomach as a machine

that requires power to run it even to a tiringout degree This is strikingly illustrated by the exhausted feelingthat invites the after-dinner nap for rest, which, however, does not rest overfilled stomachs, overfilled brains.The brain gets no rest while getting rid of food-masses with more of decomposition than of digestion

If food really has power to keep up the strength, there should not be so much strength lost by the generalactivities indeed, it would seem that fatigue should be impossible But the fact remains that from the firstwink in the morning to the last at night there is a gradual decline of strength no matter how much food istaken, nor how ample the powers of digestion; and that there comes a time with all when they must go to bed,and not to the dining-room, to recover lost strength The loss of a night of sleep is never made up by any kind

of care in eating on the following day, and none are so stupid as not to know that rest is the only means torecover from the exhaustion of excessive physical activity

The brain is not only a self-feeding organ when necessary, but it is also a self-charging dynamo, regaining itsexhausted energies entirely through rest and sleep There is no movement so light, no thought or motion sotrivial, that it does not cost brain power in its action and this is true of even the slightest exercise of energyevolved in digestion

Why, then, do we eat?

For two reasons, or perhaps three: we eat because we are hungry We rarely fail to eat excessively to satisfythe sense of relish after the normal hunger sense has been dissipated; we may eat to satisfy relish as we eat icecream, fruits, and the enticing extras that beguile us to put more food into the stomach after it is alreadyoverfilled for its working capacity But our actual need of food, the best reason for taking it, is to make up forthe wastes from the general activities; and this is a process in the order of Nature that actually tires the entirebrain system, or, in the common phrase, the whole body, unless the stomach has powers not derived from thebrain system

Now as we need not, cannot feed the brain in time of sickness, what can we feed? In all diseases in whichthere are a high pulse and temperature, pain or discomfort, aversion to food, a foul, dry mouth and tongue,thirst, etc., wasting of the body goes on, no matter what the feeding, until a clean, moist tongue and mouth andhunger mark the close of the disease, when food can be taken with relish and digested This makes it clearlyevident that we cannot save the muscles and fat by feeding under these adverse conditions

Another very important, unquestioned fact is that disease in proportion to its severity means a loss of digestiveconditions and of digestive power

Cheer is to digestion what the breeze is to the fire It may well be conceived that there are electric nerve wiresextending from the depths of the soul itself to each individual gland of the stomach, with the highest cheer orecstacy to stimulate the highest functional activity, or the shock of bad news to paralyze From cheer todespair, from the slightest sense of discomfort to the agony of lacerated nerves, digestive power goes down.Affected thus, digestive power wanes or increases, goes down or up, as mercury in a barometer from weatherconditions

Digestive conditions in their maximum are revealed in the school-yard during recess, when Nature seems busyrecovering lost time.

How compares the ramble of a June morning, with the blue and sunshine all above, the matchless green of thetrees, and all the air fragrant with the perfume of flowers and alive with music from the winged singer, indigestive conditions, with those in the rooms of the sick, where there is only distress felt in the body and seen

in the faces of the friends?

In time of health, if we eat when we are not hungry, or when very tired, or in any mental worriment, we findthat we suffer a loss of vital power, of both physical and mental energy How, then, can food be a support tovital power when the brain is more gravely depressed by disease? Yet from the morning of medical history thequestion of how vital power is supported in time of sickness has never been considered, because there hasnever been any doubt as to the support coming from food I assume this to be a fact, since all works on thepractice of medicine of to-day enjoin the need to feed the sick to sustain their depressed energies all thiswithout a question as to whether there is not a possibility of adding indigestion to disease when food is

enforced against Nature's fiat

Since vital power is centred in the brain, do we need to feed, can we feed, for other than brain reasons? Thisphysiology admitted, there is no other conclusion possible than that feeding the sick is a tax on vital powerwhen we need all that power to cure disease

With all this physiology behind me, for more than a score of years I have been going into the rooms of thesick to see the evolutions of health from disease, as I see the evolutions from the dead wastes of March to theaffluence of June, and from the first I had the exceeding advantage of being able to study the natural history ofdisease, a history in which none of the symptoms were aggravated by digestive disturbances

As there was no wasting of vital power in the hopeless effort to save the body from wasting, I had a clear right

to presume that my patients recovered more rapidly and with less suffering With no perplexing study overwhat foods and what medicines to give, I could devote my entire attention to the study of symptoms as

evidences of progress toward recovery or death; and in addition to all this there was the great satisfaction ofbeing strictly in line with Nature as to when and what to eat

As to the danger of death from mere starvation, the following remarkable case reveals how remote it is in theordinary history of acute diseases The late Rev Dr Merchant, of Meadville, Pa., a short time before hisdeath, which occurred some months ago, informed me that a brother entered the army during the War of theRebellion with a weight of one hundred and fifty-nine pounds He was sent home so wasted from ulceration ofstomach and bowels that he actually spanned his thigh with thumb and finger He lived ten days only, toastonish all by the clearness of his mind even on the last day of his life, when he could think on abstrusequestions as he had never been known to do in health At death his body weighed only sixty pounds

It was Dr Merchant's opinion, from a history of the case, that no food was digested during the last fourmonths of his life; but it is my opinion that it took a much longer time than this for the brain to absorb morethan ninety pounds of the body That life was shortened by the more rapid loss of the tissues from the disease

is to be taken into account in estimating time in starvation

IV

Feeding the sick! Who that rule in kitchens and feed the well do not realize with weariness of brain the

demands of the stomach that at each meal there shall be some change in the bill of fare?

The chief reliance of physicians for the maintenance of strength while sick bodies are being cured is milk As

a food, milk was mainly destined for the calf, and not for man certainly not after the coming of the molars It

is not a food that will start the saliva in case of hunger, as the odors from the frying-pan or from roasting fowl,yet because it plays such an important part as a complete food for some months in the life of the calf, andbecause it can be taken without especial aversion when the odors of the cooking-stove are an offence to thenostrils; it is given by the hour, day after day, and in some cases week after week; and there are physicians bythe thousands who reinforce this inflexible bill of fare by the strongest alcoholics, whiskey being generallyselected.

In this connection I shall say of alcoholics that they contain not an atom that can be converted into livingatoms; they congest and irritate the stomach, and hence lessen digestive power; and benumb all the brainpowers and faculties

As a daily ration without change, this combination, strictly adhered to, would prostrate the energies of a giant,and he would find himself mustered out of all active service in less time than the hapless sick are often

compelled to endure such feeding Does Nature so conveniently reverse herself to meet an emergency that thesick can be built up and sustained by such feeding as would debilitate the well?

In the city where I live the physicians average well in learning, ability, character, and experience Amongthem are the extremists in dosage: those with a hundred remedies for a hundred symptoms; others with suchboluses as would writhe the face of an ox There are some with extraordinary force of command in the rooms

of the sick, who believe that whiskey is nourishing and that milk is liquid food; that doses go into humanstomachs to travel the rounds of the circulation, and finally drop off at the right place for either patchwork ororiginal work

Whatever there is in drugs to cure disease, whatever in milk and the strongest alcoholics to sustain the

strength, every protracted case has been made to reveal in their forceful hands I have no reason to believethey exceeded authorized treatments I have no reason to doubt that in all countries, in all lands, where thereare educated physicians, the same appliances are in common use, appliances that will make the next short stepfrom the lancet and bolus of a darker age the estimate of the time to come

The treatments of the sick are always changing, while the process of cure remains the same Only in the case

of broken bones are we compelled to let Nature do all the curing, while we may take pride in some progress inthe mechanical appliances

As milk and stimulants are a common, authorized means to sustain the sick, and as they are poured intohuman stomachs with all the faith with which lancets were once forced into congested veins, their efficiencyfor good or evil must be studied by comparison

Treatments must lessen both the severity and the duration of disease to be of permanent benefit For a study

by comparison, this opportunity came to me There was a call to attend a case of typhoid fever in a young girl

In the same vicinity there had been under the care of one of my forceful brethren a woman in middle life,whose stomach was habitually rejecting all the milk and alcoholics poured into it, the doctor having a theorythat good would result no matter how brief the time they were retained

For a month my patient swallowed only the desired water and doses which did not corrode, a desire for foodcoming at the end of the month The only day and night nurse was an overwrought mother, who got into bedwith the same disease as soon as the daughter got out of it There was another month of severer sickness,when without food and without the horror of dosage, as before, the call for food marked the close of thedisease My services ended here some days before the undertaker took charge of the doctor's case

A girl in her later teens, with a mild, so-called malarial fever, fell into the same forceful care There was a truehistory in this case of nearly two gallons of whiskey, and daily milk from the quart at first down to inability totake the least nourishment at last Then there were more than a month of days when vital power sustained

itself without the ways of violence, death occurring during the nineteenth week.

The ravenous brain had absorbed the lips to such thinness that the depressions between the teeth were clearlyrevealed From the first dose to the last breath this was a case of dying, and the most persistent fight for lifeagainst immense odds I have ever become aware of in an acute case In this case the stomach had become soseared by the alcoholic that digestion was impossible, as would have been the case in a body that was not sick.Near this home there was a more delicate girl of about the same age taken with the same fever; but with milddosage and no food in Nature's care hunger came at the close of the fourth week

Later on in the same family there was a case of la grippe, in which for several years there had been chronic,ulcerative bronchitis that bid defiance to blisters and inhalations, the various specifics of another forcefulpredecessor, who also was a believer in large doses and full rations of alcoholized milk

The coughing was so persistent, so continuous, that only the hypodermic needle met the need To prevent thetearing of a raw surface in the bronchial tubes by the cough was as necessary as to apply splints to a brokenbone There was no food for six weeks, and Nature made most of her opportunity, not only to cure the acutedisease, but also the chronic disease, which for nearly ten years since has remained cured

I was summoned to Asheville, N C., to see a young man in the last stage of consumption I found him nearly

a skeleton, though he had been eating six times daily for several months by the decree of a really learnedphysician The belchings from gas were loud and frequent; the sputa by actual measure was about six ouncesduring every twenty-four hours

A fast was ordered, and on the third day a mass of undigested food was thrown up As soon as the stomachand bowels became empty there was comfort all along the line, and the cough was so diminished, that lessthan an ounce of sputa was raised in twenty-four hours

After a week of fasting there came a natural desire for food, and thence on he enjoyed without distress ofstomach all he wished to take Thence on he lived with only the least discomfort, and with whispering lips hedictated to me his will, conveying large property He could look with meaning when the power to whisper wasgone, and life ended as the going out of a candle

For months his sufferings had nearly all been due to food masses in a state of decomposition He saw clearlyand mentioned often that his had been a case of starvation from overfeeding Nature finally had to succumbbecause she was not also able to deal with a clearly avoidable disease, indigestion; but she kept up a bravefight until the body was nearly absorbed

As soon as the stomach and bowels became empty the friends noticed that nervousness largely disappeared.His sleeps were much longer, because not broken by coughing as before; and as the brain was not taxed withfood masses there was an accumulation of power that was clearly revealed in the cheer of expression and acalmness as if heavenly rest had come at last

A few years ago an attorney in this city had to endure a course of fever to which was added all the knownbarbarism of the times Under enforced food and stimulants his mind at last became so weak that the dosingswere forced down his throat There were many weeks of life at lowest ebb before the man of torture (thedoctor) was compelled to discontinue his evil work, and there were then months, extending to years, duringwhich there appeared a colorless ghost of his former self on the streets and this in spite of a wood-chopper'sdaily eatings, which were far in excess of power to digest

At last he was brought to his couch with a mild fever complicated with a variety of other ailings Not one ofhis friends who knew him intimately expected his recovery, as it was believed by them that there were chronic

conditions that were beyond cure, and this because there had been death in manner, movements, and looks formonths And yet he had been able to take a stomach to his office every morning for many weeks filled withpancakes, sausage, fried potatoes, etc., only to shiver before the stove between his stomach-fillings.

To this possibly hopeless case I was called, and from that time he was to suffer only from the disease Fornearly three weeks no food was called for; and yet power so increased that he became able to dress himself;and on the morning before hunger finally called for food he came down from his bedroom with a son on hisback who weighed not less than seventy-five pounds Thence on, life, color, mind, muscle, rapidly came untilthere was such regeneration as to reveal a new body and a new soul

Some years before this event an only son was taken sick with a mild fever A young physician and friend ofthe patient was called whose faith in drugs, milk, and whiskey was boundless He was fresh from his

university, and therefore Nature had no part, through experience at the sick-bed, in the cure of disease Formany weeks these remedies of torture were vigorously and persistently enforced But the time came whenNature would bear no longer The father, a personal friend, came to see me simply to unburden himself, and

as he was not able to give me the case I was unprofessional enough to advise that the attendance should go on,but that there should be a complete rest the physician should not know of This was done, and in a few daysthere was a call for food, the first call in more than two months Of course, there was a recovery, which was

an exceeding victory for Nature against extraordinarily adverse conditions, but it required many months torestore the wrecked balance

As I write this experience the following comes to me as a still stronger indictment against authorized medicalmethod A B., when in the early maturity of his physical manhood, was stricken with a partial paralysis thatsent him to his bed It was simply the case of a wound of the brain requiring rest as the chief condition forcure But milk, whiskey, and drugs were used with the greatest persistence, and after three months he becameable to be about, no less feeble in mind than in body, and with teeth utterly ruined by the dosage For fullyfive years he went about his home and along the streets as one in a dream For ten years there was inability toattend to his ordinary business Life came at last through the no-breakfast plan

The most remarkable fight for life on the part of Nature against the adverse conditions of drugs, alcoholics,and milk I have ever known was in the following case: A spare woman, of perhaps forty years, came to herbed the victim of habitual bromidia and chloral, invited by severe headaches The treatment of this case was asfollows: whiskey every hour, milk every other hour; corrosive medication and powerful brain sedative everynight, which would have paralyzed digestive energy for many days There was not an hour during the

twenty-four in which there was not dosing either to cure the disease or to sustain the system The averagequantity of whiskey was six ounces daily, and of milk nearly a quart This treatment was borne for weeks,merging into months There was no disease not caused by the treatments, and the battle went on until therewas only the shadow of a woman left when Nature rebelled against further violence A few days of peacewere granted because hope had departed; but it took Nature more than a year to recover from the damage

A man of iron and steel, in the early prime of life, was the victim of a severe injury With the agony of

lacerated nerves and the hypodermic needle to make the digestion of food impossible, milk and whiskey werepoured into an unwilling stomach from the first, and both were used until neither could be retained; and thenthe lower bowel was extemporized into a stomach For one hundred and forty-six days, from three to sevendoses of morphine were put into the arm daily; and morphine dries both mouth and stomach and lessens allenergies of the brain The body itself was not sick; there was no hint of disease in it; yet there were drugsprescribed that cost dollars by the score, and there were alcoholics by the gallon For months the pain,

alcoholics, and morphine kept the mind in such a daze that there were only the imbecilic mutterings of adreamer in trouble

The only treatment indicated in this case was the best of surgery for the injury, and some easing doses for ashort while at first, to relieve pain No food would be desired or digested; so the fast would go on until there

would be a natural hunger, which would only manifest itself when there would be marked relief from pain.The meals, thence on, would be so far apart that all would be keenly relished; and there could be no loss ofweight when meals would be so taken.

It is not surprising when I say that a seared stomach and a brain converted into a whiskey pickle had no part inthe digestion of milk: else why did the weight of one hundred and sixty pounds at the time of the accident fall

to eighty-five at the time of hunger? And all this drugging and alcoholics for a man who was not really sick!and the bill of fare that was not changed during one hundred and sixty days! and the time lost, and the expenseentailed, and the anxious, aching hearts that were nearest the bed of horrors of horrors, torments clearlyinvited

By way of contrast the following case is given During vacation a lad of twelve years of one of my familiestook to his bed with appendicitis in severe form A learned physician was called, and there were many days ofmorphine, with other medication and all the food that could be coaxed into an unwilling stomach Enoughmorphine was given daily to paralyze digestive energy for at least two or three days in one in ordinary health.There was a month of this war against Nature, when the violence of the acute attack subsided and a partialvictory was gained against great odds

On my return I found him under heavy dosage for the recovery of strength and lost appetite Colorless,

anæmic, languid he was barely able to walk He was immediately put under my care, and therefore under afast that ended in a few days in such hunger as had not been felt in several months; and color, cheer, energy,weight evolved in a month But there was also a developing abscess deep in the groin, and the time camewhen a grave operation was necessary to save life He was made ready for the surgeon's knife that cut its waydown, down many inches to relieve walls ready to burst from the tension The wound remained in the care ofthe surgeon, but the life in my care Who deny that the anæsthetic, the shock of the operation, and the

subsequent pain will not abolish all power to digest as well as all the desire for food? Here was a patientwaiting for Nature to rally, which she did on the third day in a call for food; and thence on one daily meal waskeenly relished, and the wound was healed a wound that was three inches long on the surface and six inchesdeep On the fifteenth day the lad was able to be dressed and able to walk about his room, and with a freshness

of color that was never observed in him before What law of body was violated in the preliminary treatmentintended to prepare Nature for the ordeal and to enable her to rally from it?

This fresh tragedy in one human life has become known to me while I write A man, a giant, in his

eighty-eighth year, lost his appetite, and was put to death by the following means: A pint of whiskey and fromone to two quarts of milk daily to keep him nourished Five months passed without any change in the bill offare five months of delirium, of imbecilic muttering before the last breath was drawn These tragedies arecommon the world over Do I cry against them with too loud a voice? Would that I had a voice of thunder!

I have given a few examples of the crucifixions of the sick and the afflicted, whereof I have many, and theyare the real history of cases known, and are constantly occurring in every community

The cure of disease and injury by fasting the mode of Nature made the greatest impression in families inwhich there was intelligence enough to comprehend it; but the victories of Nature were complicated by cases

in which death was inevitable With a feeling that I must give the new hygiene to the world in printed form, Idid not enlarge in public over a method that would be certain to be suggestive of starvation, where food wassupposed to be of the greatest importance

My sick-room success failed to enable me to draw larger checks; but the satisfaction of going into the rooms

of the sick and not having to rack my mind over what medicine to give, what food to be taken, was a greatcompensation for the absence of a large bank account Professional attainments and abilities play only a smallpart in the mere business side of the medical profession An innocent public believes with intense convictions

in the efficacy of dosage; and with distorted vision, as the famous knight of La Mancha, sees giants in

professional healers who are really only windmills, with whom personal contact in the sick-room is only toooften a danger measured by its closeness.

Think of the wasting of the body during sickness; of the brain system, which is life itself, that does not waste:think of the cases of recovery in which for weeks no food is possible for stomach reasons; of the more

frequent cases in which recoveries take place after weeks of such scant food as not to be taken into account as

a support to vital power by minds governed by reason Think how disease, in proportion to its severity, is aloss of digestive power, and with cure energy entirely of the brain, how serious a matter it is to lessen it bywaste of energy in forcing decomposing food masses through a digestive channel nearly two rods long, foodmasses that the brain will have none of, and that do not save the fat and muscles; think of all this physiology,and raise this question: "Is this man alone in his faith and practice, or is Nature so in line with him that theentire medical profession is wrong in their dosings and feedings?"

I conclude these cases with an illustration Think of all this enforced feeding, of the doses to relieve, of thewasting of brain power, and compare with the following illustration, in which case no food was taken forthirty-six days, and yet it was possible for the patient to be about during the greater part of the time

NOTE. In this case severe indigestion and nervous troubles and almost daily headaches had been a torture foryears On the morning of the thirty-sixth day, on which the photograph was taken, a visit to the dentist for theextraction of a tooth revealed no fear, as had formerly been the case Eating was resumed on the thirty-eighthday with no inconvenience Since then (over six months ago) no trace of the former troubles has reappeared.Loss of weight about twenty pounds

[Illustration: Photograph, by Henry Ritter

It is my impression that, in proportion, as many physicians become the slaves of tobacco, opium in someform, and alcoholics as are to be found in any other class of people; they are quite as likely to be the victims

of various chronic ailings as other people, and with equal impotency to relieve Every day I see physiciansgoing to the homes of the sick with cigars on fire, signals of the brain system in distress undergoing thelullaby of nicotine; going into rooms where the purest air of heaven ought to prevail, as animated

tobacco-signs

Where is there virtue in this world that is of any practical good whose vital force is not to be found in examplerather than in precept? Who has more need to go into the room of the sick with the purest breath, the cleanesttongue, the brightest eyes, the purest complexion, the most radiant countenance, and with a soul free from thebonds of ailings or habits that offend and disable, than the physician? Where is the logic of employing the sick

to feed the sick? Is not that a sick doctor whose nerves are so full of plaints as to need the frequent soothingsonly found in a cigar, that also sears the nerves of taste? Is he not very sick when those nerves require thestronger alcoholic?

There is contagion in good health and sound morals, when daily illustrated, no less than in courage and fear

No physician can be at his best in the rooms of the sick if he be under any bondage from disease or habit

"Physician, heal thyself!" Physician, how does it happen that you have need to be healed, and of what worthare you if you can neither prevent disease nor cure yourself with your dosings? What availeth it to a man totalk righteously when virtue is not in him?

Ailings, habits blunt all the special senses and the finer instincts and tastes, and impair the power to reasonclearly, to infer correctly, to conclude wisely Only the well have that hopefulness that comes from power inreserve, power that is not wasted through acquired disease and acquired habits The contagion of health is apower no less than courage or fear

That man, self-poised, void of fear, General Grant, crushed the Rebellion with a single sentence, "I will fight

it out on this line if it takes all summer." That sentence made every man in his army a Grant in courage andconfidence Grant in his prime could puff his cigar while commanding all the armies of his country; but thecigar ultimately destroyed his life, and there was no physician to interpose to prevent one of the most torturing

of deaths

Where is the logic of the sick trying to heal the sick? This question will be more frequently asked in that time

to come when the drug-store annex to the sick-room will be much smaller than is now thought necessary

Human expression is studied in the rooms of the sick as nowhere else; and if the lines are not obscured by thefogs and clouds of disease the signs can be much more clearly distinguished

A man is now under my care whose soul is of the largest mould, and who is so supremely endowed by reason

of intellect, varied tastes and acquirements, as to make life on earth well worth living His long chronic localailment has not impaired his power to read me for signs of hope as it seems to me I have never been readbefore; and never before have I so felt the need to enter a room of the sick with a larger stock of generalhealth For the time I seem to him to be holding before his eyes the keys of life or death

The physician should be able to go into the room of the sick to see with clearest vision whatever is revealed tothe natural eye; and no less to see with eyes of understanding that he may be an interpreter of conditions thatindicate recovery or death He is the historian of disease, and therefore before he can write he must see clearlyall that can be known about the process of cure as revealed by symptoms

The eye is at its best only in perfect health no less than the reason, the judgment, and the spirits A few yearsago a drouth of many weeks occurred; in some meadows and pastures the grass seemed dead, beyond thepossibility of growth Every shade of the green had departed; but warm rains came, and in a few days therewas a green carpet plush-like in its softness and delicacy

So the progress of cure may be read on the tongue, on the skin, in the eyes, where there are both eyesight andinsight to see and to study

VI

For many years I entered the rooms of the sick a sick man myself; I was the victim of that monster of

hydraheads, dyspepsia, or, to call it by a more modern title, indigestion

In my later teens my stomach began seriously to complain over its tasks, and a pint of the essence of bitternesswas procured to restore it to power My mouth was filled with teeth of the sweet kind; hence my horror for thedoses far exceeded the milder protests of the stomach Not the slightest benefit came from my medicinalsufferings, and this ended all routine treatment of my stomach My intense aversion to the flavor of strongmedicines caused me to inflict them as rarely as possible upon other mouths during the drug period of mypractice

Mine seemed to be a weary stomach, in which the tired sense was a close approach to acute pain for hoursafter each meal When a medical student I found nothing in the books, in the advice of my preceptor, nor inthe lectures at the university, but what proposed to cure me through drugs that were abhorrent As I neverencountered any cures nor received the slightest benefit from my experiments, I was deterred from injuringmyself through persistent dosage.

In the early part of my student career I was behind a drug-counter, where I had ample experience in putting upprescriptions, and had an excellent opportunity to measure medical men as revealed in their formulas and theresults in many cases in which failure was the rule in chronic ailings; and I was not encouraged to abusemyself through the results as revealed by any form of medication

For the benefit of those who suffer from complainings of the stomach I give a condensed summing-up ofmyself I was born with a wiry constitution, but of the lean kind, and a weak stomach, the chiefest ancestrallegacy With ability to see with intense sense very much to enjoy in this world, my resources in this way wereboundless, hence I was always full of hope and cheer

All the senses of my palate were of the acute kind, and so were a continual source of the penalties of gluttony.Whatever else there might be alack with me, there was never a lack of appetite I was able to eat at each mealfood enough which, if fully digested, would have redeemed the wastes of any day of labor; and not only this,but also enough of sugar-enticing foods to anticipate the wastes of the following day

Growing up in the country and with an intense fondness for the tart sweetness of apples, pears, and peaches,and the harmlessness of eating them no matter how full the stomach with hearty food, without question mystomach was never void of pomace during the entire fruit season

Whenever I sat down to eat there was an onrush of all the senses of the palate as the outrush of imprisonedchildren to the ecstatic activities of the school-yard; hence over-eating always, with never a sense of satiety.The penalties were realized in painful digestion, with the duodenum the chiefest of protesting voices

A time came when gas would so accumulate as to make the heart labor from mere pressure, the inevitableinsufficiency of breath causing a lack of ặration of the blood With a constant waste of power in the stomachthere was always a sense of weariness; hence I was never able to know the luxury of power in reserve Allthrough life my best efforts were the result of intellectual inebriation, with always corresponding exhaustion

as the direct result This weakness compelled me to waste the least time on people who could not interest me,and to spend much time alone to recharge my exhausted batteries

For such a case as mine there is not to-day to be found an intelligent hint in any medical text-book as to thephysiological way to recovery

The breakfasts in my house were of a character that, without ham, sausage, eggs, steaks, or chops, they wouldnot have been considered worth spending time over I had reached a time when a general collapse seemed to

be impending; but it was stayed for a few years by the new life that came to me through the evolutions ofhealth in the rooms of the sick that seemed to portend possible professional glories: but as the years went on Isuffered more and more from nervous prostration through waste of power in the stomach

My friends began to enlarge upon my wretched looks, and with no little concern; but none were wise enough

to realize that my need was for words that reminded of life and not of death

By chance I met an old friend on the street when he happened to be thinking about ways in daily food inEurope, from which he had just returned, and at once he began to talk, not about my wretched looks, but aboutthe exceedingly light breakfasts customary in all the great centres where he had been They consisted only of aroll and a cup of coffee I was impressed just enough not to forget the fact, but without there being a hint in it

to set me to thinking.

But the time came, "the fulness of time." There came a morning when for the first time I remembered thatwhen in ordinary health I had no desire to breakfast; but there was a sense of such general exhaustion frompower wasted over an unusual food mass not needed at the previous evening meal that my morning coffee wascraved as the morning dram by the chronic toper Only this, and a forenoon resulted of such comfort of body,such cheer, and such mental and physical energy as had never been realized since my young manhood washappy in the blessed unconsciousness of having a stomach that, no matter how large or how numerous thedaily meals, never complained

As for the dinner that followed, it was taken with an acuteness of relish and was handled with a power ofdigestion that were also a new, rich experience; but the afternoon fell far short of the forenoon The

experience was so remarkable that I at once gave up all eating in the morning, and with such reviving effectsupon all my powers that the results began to be noticed by all friends

So originated the no-breakfast plan Up to this time I had never had a thought of advising anyone to do

without food when desired; much less that any of the three daily meals should be given up My war wasagainst feeding when acute sickness had abolished all desire for food, and this I had been able to conductmany years without exciting suspicion of a general practice of homicide

The improvement in my own case was so instant and so marked that I began to advise the same to others, andwith the result that each would make known the redeeming work to suffering friends, and so the idea spread in

a friend-to-friend way

Now the American breakfast, in point of sheer necessity, is believed to be the most important meal of the day,

as the means for strength that is to be called out for the forenoon of labor, and believed with a force of

insistence that warrants a conclusion that a night of sleep is more exhausting to all the powers than the day oflabor

To go into the fresh air, to do anything with an empty stomach, is to invite a fainting by the way, is the

general impression; but there were scarcely any cases in which there was not sufficient improvement toprevent all possibility of a return to the heavy breakfasts that had been abandoned

How did this scheme affect me in a professional way, that is, in the reputation as a physician of averagebalance of brain functions? Some of my professional brethren of strong conviction and ready command oflanguage began at once to try to abolish the dangerous heresy by suggesting that on this one subject I wasabsolutely crazy Of course, their patrons took up this idea with avidity; and so there was a babble of tongues,with myself the central point of attack as crank-in-chief of all cranks This is not the language of exaggeration;for whatever the law and modern civilization permitted to abolish me professionally was inflicted with

tongues by the thousands, the war being made all the more exciting and interesting by the enthusiasm of newrecruits to the heresy from the professional domains of my medical brethren

What did I gain by this professionally? Mostly the odium of heresy during the first few years; but with it wasthe supreme satisfaction that came from seeing more additions to bright eyes and happy faces than medicineever gave, and in a way that would redound to my own good at some time The fact is, that as a means tobetter health, no matter what nor where the disease, there is no limit to its application As a universal panaceaits powers are matchless

For a time I saw no farther than a cure of stomach condition and resulting general comfort That any diseasewas to be cured otherwhere than in the stomach by means so simple, did not occur as an original conception;but the fact that giving up the morning meal was attended with improvement of all local diseases set me tothinking Many of my patients became thin under the regime; but as this was attended by an increase of

strength, not even the alarm of anxious friends without faith was ever able to induce a return fully to the oldways.

But how explain the loss of weight? A clue came from the following case: The first-born of a young motherhad an habitual diarrhoea from birth lasting many months; and yet it seemed well nourished, for it was

unusually fat and heavy for its age; but the days and nights were long in the care of this apparently

well-nourished child The symptoms were heedless to the every-hour dosing of pellets, or from the tumblers

of apparently purest water

Now this mother, young as she was, was a woman of convictions, and with courage to follow each to anultimate conclusion She had heard of miracles resulting from only three feedings per day during the nursingperiod; and so, notwithstanding a storm of opposition from a vast circle of relatives, she put this first-bornrigidly on the three-meal plan, with the result of immediate cessation of the bowel trouble, but with rapiddecline in weight

This caused anxiety, and I was called upon for advice In every respect except the weight-loss the

improvement was wonderful After much thought there was a sudden flash of the truth: there were an

abnormal weight and bulk, due to the general dropsy of debility, similar in character to the swelling of the feetand limbs in the old and feeble The thickened walls of the bloodvessels, toned with health, caused absorption;but the eyes of the friends would not open to the miracle for a very long time, and so render justice to theheroine, the young mother As an aider and abettor of such a flagrant system of starvation, I had my full share

of opprobrium; but, aided by the strong-minded, sensible mother, Nature gained a sweeping victory, and thusthis case cleared my mind from confusion as to the anomaly

One of my medical friends with whom calomel was as a sheet-anchor often asserted that babies would

actually get fat on it That bulk would actually increase by use of the forceful medicine is likely; but that theincrease would be dropsical I think is unquestionable

The dropsy of debility is due to a loss of tone of the vascular system; the walls of the vessels become thinnerand therefore dilate In the feet and limbs of the old and greatly enfeebled by disease the veins become

distended to abnormal size by the force of gravity, resulting in effusion of water into the cellular tissues,which increases when in the upright position during the day and decreases when in the horizontal position atnight

A toning up of the entire vascular system, by which a reverse current from the tissues into the bloodvessels ismade possible, is the only means for relief

This flash-light upon the part physics plays in the cure of disease put me upon the true lines of investigation,and furnished a key for the solution of many problems From this time on I was to be kept busy, not in

winning victories, but in studying them

This new physiology was not fully apprehended until long after the no-breakfast plan was taken up It came to

me link by link; but the missing link was the fact that food only restores waste, that lost strength is onlyrestored by sleep; and it now seems to me that I was very dull not to have found it out long before I did Itseems to me that no method of health culture, none in the treatment of disease can have any physiologicalbasis where these facts are not taken into account

For a time I failed to look beyond the ailments of the stomach for curative results, until really surprising newsbegan to reach me from many sources There would come to me those who had to tell about clearer vision,acuter hearing, a stronger sense of smelling, etc., senses that were not thought to be affected by disease; orthere would be news that chronic, local ailings, as nasal or bronchial catarrhs, skin diseases, hemorrhoids, orother intractable disease, in some mysterious manner, were undergoing a decline under the new regime

In the domain of drugs we have medicines that vivid imagination has endowed with presumed affinities forlocations that are diseased They enter the circulation and happily get off at the right spot, to act curatively;but no theories are advanced as to how they aid in the construction of new cells or atoms, or how they aid inthe disposal of the old ones.

Construction, destruction! There is no death of atoms: really nothing is generated, nothing destroyed: thechange is but the rearranging of ultimate elements; and how is a drug to influence any more than would be incase of the affinities of chemistry?

Hazy conceptions, crude means! The ultimate cell multiplies by division to become bone, nails, hair,

ligaments, muscles, fat, the brain, the whole body Where along the line in the reconstructive work called by adisease or injury is a medicine to apply with power to aid? In what way the need to be expressed, in whatoperative way the helpful assistance made clear, that faith without works that are seen can be made strong?The chemist never rushes into print with news that another element has been discovered until demonstrativeevidence has placed the matter beyond all question If anything new is discovered in the firmaments, adequatemeans to an end will be able to reveal it to all interested eyes

The impressions of science are quite different from the impressions of the materia medica; and the miracles ofcure that are displayed by the column in even the highest class public prints are never in reach of scientificexplanation

A new element is announced; we know instantly that it has been actually discovered A new cure is

announced; we instantly may know that the evidences will never be displayed along the lines of science

I now unfold a theory of my own of the origin and development of disease, and the development of cure, inwhich the physical changes involved in some of the processes are in reach of the microscope

It is my impression that, with rare exceptions, people are born with actual structural weaknesses, local orgeneral, that may be called ancestral legacies These are known as constitutional tendencies to disease

In parts structurally weak at birth the bloodvessels, because of thin and weak walls, are larger than in normalparts, and because of dilatation the blood circulates slower There is an undue pressure upon all

between-vessel structures, a pressure that must lessen the nutrient supply more or less, according to its degree.The death of parts in boils and abscesses is due, I believe, to strangulation of the nerve-supply The

bloodvessels are elastic, and capable of contraction and dilatation, a matter regulated by the brain

Now in these weaknesses always lie the possibilities of disease; they may be supposed the weak links in theconstitutional chain, and can no more be made stronger than the constitutional design than can the body as awhole By whatever means brain power is lessened abnormality is incited in the weak parts; hence graduallyfrom the original weakness there is a summing up, as a bronchial or nasal catarrh, or other acute or chroniclocal or general disease

The first step in any disease is the impression that lessens brain power; the slightest depressing emotion, theslightest sense of discomfort, lessens brain power, and to a like degree the tone of all the bloodvessels; hencedilatation in degree That the stomach, as the most abused organ of the body, plays the largest part in

over-drafts upon the brain is not a matter of doubt

Let us develop a chronic disease along these lines, with nasal catarrh for an illustration As tone is regulatedentirely by the brain system, all taxing of the brain increases the debility of the nasal structures In course oftime the debility so increases through whatever also debilitates the brain, that a stage is reached when water inthe blood begins to escape through the thin walls of the vessels and mingles with the natural secretion of the

membrane, and a catarrhal discharge is the result In severe cases a time may be reached when death of partsfrom the strangling pressure may occur, and then we have an ulcerative catarrh.

This evolution will go on as determined by the gravity of the ancestral weakness, by the natural strength of thedynamo, the brain, and the severity of the debilitating forces to which it may be subjected

No one is ever attacked by a nasal or any other catarrh, nor by any other chronic ailings They all start fromstructural weaknesses that are inherited, and they are the evolutionary results of brain-wearying forces

If a specialist were asked to express the actual condition of a diseased structure that seems to call for

medicinal aid, and to tell just how medicated sprays, washes, and douches are to reach all the parts involved,with healing power, and in what way that power is exercised in other words, what work actually is to bedone, and how medicine is to do it he would not be able to enlighten his questioner no matter how fertile hisconception, how dexterous his use of language In fact, the healing power of drugs exists in fertile

imaginations rather than among those ultimate processes where disease is cured, where disease destroys

As the care moves by the power evolved in the dynamo, so do the bloodvessels contract and relax as

determined by brain conditions Dilating bloodvessels, effusion of water from thinning walls, the

between-vessels starving pressure, increasing general debility of all the structures involved this is the gradualevolution of catarrh and of all other chronic diseases

From this it was seen that no form of local treatment can avail to relieve the operative cause in cases of thiskind Tone must be added to all the weakened, dilated vessels, in order to contract and thicken their walls so

as to stop the leakage, and to relieve that pressure upon the between structures that have become anæmicthrough lack of nourishment

That an evolution in reverse is the one need scarcely calls for argument It is the brain that needs our attention,and we meet its need by saving its rare powers from wasting

We will do this by cutting down, as far as possible, all the activities for which it furnishes power, even as wewould diminish the number of cars where power in the dynamo had become deficient; we will either sever thewires that connect with the stomach, or make a marked reduction in the labor to be performed in the stomach.With power accumulating in the brain, power will reach the utmost recesses of debility and disease, withNature to do all the healing

To reinforce this physiology, this statement may be made with the strongest emphasis: the medical treatment

of chronic disease fails inevitably because it fails to consider the vital force involved The brain has no part inthe treatment of chronic disease by the specialist, where drugs are a means to an end never reached: there areonly a disappointment and an interchange of pocket-books

In all parts suffering with pain there is congestion, swelling The bloodvessels are distended; hence the nervessuffer violence in stretching or from pressure The pain simply adds to the abnormal conditions by causing anactive determination of the blood to the involved parts To relieve pain, then, is curative, because it lessens theabnormal congestion

The no-breakfast plan with me proved a matter of life unto life With my morning coffee there were forenoons

of the highest physical energy, the clearest condition of mind, and the acutest sense of everything enjoyable.The afternoons were always in marked sluggishness by contrast, from the taxing of digestion

Without realizing that the heavy meals of the day were a tax upon the brain, I would scarcely get away fromthe table before I began to feel more generally tired out than the severest taxing from a long forenoon of

general activity ever made me With the filled stomach, fatigue, general exhaustion, came as a sudden attackrather than as an evolution from labor, and there would be several hours of unfitness for doing any kind ofservice well.

In the application of this method to others I had the great satisfaction of good results without any exceptions;and the missionary work was begun by friends among friends, fairly spreading better health and addingthereby more and more disaster to my name

More and more I became a focus of adverse criticism in all matters where level-headedness was deemedimportant My acute cases began to be watched with hostile interest, as if homicide from starvation were theinevitable result in all cases My country had become the country of an enemy

Not being able to give my patients clearly defined reasons for the general and local improvements resultingfrom a forenoon fast as a method in hygiene, it had to be spread from relieved persons to suffering friends;and according to the need, the sufferers from various ailings would be willing to try anything new whereefforts through the family physician or patent medicines had completely failed; it was spread as if by

contagion, among the failures of the medical profession

Among those to become interested at an early date was a prominent minister who wore the title of D D., andfor a time his interest was intense He came to me one day with word that a member of his household, wellknown to me as a young woman of unusual ability and culture, had not been able to take solid food at his tablefor a year, and he believed that my treatment would avail in her case To this she was very averse, since everytreatment her hapless stomach had received had only added to the debility, until disability had become theresult She finally came to me to be relieved from the forceful importunity of her reverend friend, who hadexcited my eager interest with a prophecy that unusual literary distinction would follow a cure, as there wereabilities of the very highest order, in his estimation

She came, and I had no difficulty in securing such a vacation for the worn-out stomach that it could beginwith solid food when the time to eat arrived The vacation was so brief and power had accumulated so rapidlythat almost any food could be taken without discomfort, and no trouble ever came not invited by a relapsefrom the better way of living that had really created a new stomach

This case caused more notoriety over the no-breakfast plan than any that ever occurred in the city As a writer

of biographies and of articles in high-class journals and magazines, this talented woman has been a miracle ofpatient, persistent study and investigation

This endorsement in high places greatly added to my reputation as a physician with distorted mind, for theidea that any good could come from a short fast, to be followed by the giving up of that needed morning meal,was too absurd for sober reflection, too violently revolutionary to be even patiently considered

The no-breakfast plan was not so very long in becoming known over the entire city; a bridge had been

crossed, and every plank taken up and destroyed; thence the ways into new families were nearly closed

I am enlarging a little upon the opposition that met me from all points, because all who are to be convincedthat these are the true ways in health culture will begin at once to enlighten their ailing friends, and will,therefore, encounter the same opposition "Sir, you have not had enough opposition," said bluff, old SamuelJohnson There will be no need to complain of any lack of this kind in the efforts to render suffering friendsthe only aid possible, that will be in persistent efforts of Nature

My medical brethren considered the scheme only as they would consider an invasion of smallpox or a heresywhose methods were a danger to life One physician, a woman specialist, informed me that she was

continually importuned as to her professional opinion of the new craze that had invaded the city That all other

physicians were equally called upon, that they would condemn, was inevitable; and I permitted them thelargest liberty without the least resentment; but there was the sustaining cheer of seeing the happiest faces thatonly increased as the heresy spread.

My attendance upon the severely sick became more taxing because of the exceeding concern in the immediateenvironment, that the pangs of starvation were being added to the pangs of disease

As none of my professional brethren ever manifested any desire to be enlightened on this subject, I did notvolunteer, since I felt the wiser way would be to wait an adequate amount of evidence before making anypublic announcements of presumed important discoveries in practical hygiene

My experiences in the rooms of the sick had convinced me, long before I gave up my morning meal, thatdeath from starvation was so remote as practically to exclude it from consideration; hence with the greatimprovement that was the immediate result in my own case I could from the first speak with a "thus saith theLord" emphasis on the safety of going through a forenoon "on an empty stomach."

As no one could come into my office without my being able to give the assurance of at least some relief thatwould be immediately realized, that would be felt even to the finger-ends, my office became more and more alecture-room, a school of health culture for the education of missionaries, for a friend-to-friend uplifting intohigher life

All I needed for my own sake was that missing link to clothe my words with all the desired power With somuch to enliven, to encourage, it was as if I were sitting at the very feet of Nature, so thrilled by her

wonderful stories that I was utterly unconscious of the storm of ridicule and epithet to which I was subjected.Once in a while Nature would favor me with a miracle in the way of an inspiring change A man in the earlyprime of life had reached a condition in which he habitually rejected every breakfast Two trips to Europe and

a year in the hands of a Berlin specialist for the stomach failed to relieve; and yet he was not so disabled as toprevent him attending to his ordinary business affairs; the stomach seemed to be eccentric in being merelyirritable without structural disease

I asked him if he felt that the breakfasts which would not stay down were doing him any good To this he had

to assent that they were not I told him if the breakfast only to result in a heave-offering were omitted hewould be better able for his duties of the forenoon He began at once to raise his brows

It was not difficult for him to see that if no breakfasts were put into his stomach none would have to be thrown

up with sickening effort, and hence he could not but be better for the forenoon services if the sick spell wereomitted The fact was, the breakfast would soon be rejected, and then the hours of rest would enable thestomach to handle the dinner without the repetition of the morning sickness

Only a few words from me of this kind, and thence on there were no breakfasts; and from the first all thecomplaints from the stomach ceased, and he used to remark that he began to get well as soon as I began to talk

marked an increase of cheer and general strength, and the enjoyment of the general meal at or before noonwas so immeasurably increased, that the method spread as a contagion against which professional

denouncement and ridicule were in vain

And with all converts I found that the experiences in the penalties of gluttony were so enlightening, so

restraining, that there was apparently little need to say much more as to the quantity or quality of food, whatand how to eat

The enthusiasm of all over the forenoons of power and comfort, to be followed by a luxury of meals neverbefore realized, fully satisfied my pride in professional success; and all the more because the penalties ofgluttony were seldom charged to my account

It was only after the missing link was found and added to the chain that I could fully realize the enormouswaste of strength and the mental and moral degradation from eating food in excess, because the enticements

of relish are taken for the actual needs of the body Think of it! Actual soul power involved in ridding the

stomach and bowels of the foul sewage of food in excess, food in a state of decomposition, to be forced

through nearly two rods of bowels and largely at the expense of the soul itself!!

Oh, gluttony, with its jaws of death, its throat an ever-open gate to the stomach of torment!

VII

When I finally arrived at a point of vision where I could see the stomach as a mere machine, that it could nomore act without brain-power than brawny arms with their nerves severed could wield a sledge, I began astudy of digestion with new interest, with a view to save power from undue waste

It is the sense of relish, of flavor, that is behind all the woes of indigestion, and not the sense of hunger The

sweetened foods; the pies, cakes, puddings, etc., that are eaten merely from a sense of relish after the sense ofhunger has become fully sated, and generally by far more of the plainer foods than waste demands, is thewrecking sin at all but the humblest tables

Rapid eating, by which there is imperfect solution of the tougher solids and a filling of the stomach before the

hunger sense can naturally be appeased, is the additional evil to insure serious consequences to the stomachand brain

For merely practical purposes, all that is necessary to know about the digestive process is that by a peculiar

arrangement of the muscle forces of the stomach the food is made to revolve in such a way as to wipe theexuding digestive juice from the walls; that, therefore, the finer the division of the solids by mastication themore rapid the solution to the absorbing condition That meat in finer particles will sooner dissolve than meat

in large, solid masses is clearly seen

It will be recalled that digestive conditions are really soul conditions, as if there were actual wires extendingfrom the very depths of the soul itself to each individual gland, with power to ebb and flow as the mentalcondition shall determine

It may be presumed that power to digest is the power to revolve food in the stomach and the power to generate

the gastric juice as determined by the power of the brain, the glands themselves not holding their juice in merereserve, but power to generate in reserve Thus it is seen that food in excess is in every way exhaustive as theimmediate result

These may be called the subjective conditions of digestion Now let us consider some of the objective

conditions from the standpoint of moral science What the sunshine of a warm day is to all growing things on

the earth, so is that shining seen in other faces that reaches the depths of the human soul with brightness andlife.

Overeating is so universal from the general ignorance of practical physiology that few stomachs have a time

for a full clearing with the needed rest before the time of another filling arrives It is therefore a matter ofsheer necessity not only to attain and maintain the utmost possible cheer of soul, but it is also a necessity tohave cheer in other souls with whom relations are intimate

As a matter of extraneous digestive aid, a cheerful soul in a family is an abiding source of digestive energy to

all in social contact It affects the digestive energy of all, as the breeze the fire, as the clearing sky the lowspirits from the gloom of chill and fogs The eyes that do not glisten with higher life, the lines upon the facethat are not alive with cheerful, kindly emotions, the frowning look, the word that cuts deeply, have theirrepressive effects upon digestive energy within their remorseless reach

The moral science of digestive energy is a new study; it is not known as a factor in the process of digestion;

but the time is coming when cheer of soul will become a study as of one of the finer arts, and then humanhomes will not be so much like lesser lunatic asylums without the restraining hands of a wise superintendent

Life will be different in homes when all within the age of reason shall realize that their words without

kindness, their looks without cheer, are forces that tend to physical and moral degradation, really nothing lessthan death-dealing energies upon all lives within their reach The power of human kindness has ever been afavorite theme with the moralist, but it has not been considered with reference to its power upon digestion

Anger is mental and moral chaos; it is insanity; it is revenge in the fury of a hurricane; and sensitive natures

have the greatest need for the largest measure of health in order that these human tempests shall be underlarger restraint

The gloomy, the irritable, the dyspeptic Christian is a dispenser of death and not of the higher life, and hisreligious faith does not spread by the contagiousness of example: and because of the solemnity, of the

exceeding importance of his sense of the possibilities of the life beyond death he has all the more need to havethat physical and moral strength that his daily walk, conversation, and mien may be consistent, forceful, anduplifting

To this great end study, study to see cheer everywhere, and above all things to possess it Good health is also

contagious, and, no less than disease, has a reflex impression Only above the chill dampness, the fogs, andclouds is the clear sky with the blazing sun There are undreamed-of possibilities of getting above the

worriments of life through an intelligent understanding and application of the physiology of cheer as the chiefforce in the life of the body, mind, and soul

VIII

Having finally arrived at the conviction that from the first wink in the morning until the last at night strengthdeparts, not in any way to be kept up by food, that from the last wink at night until the first in the morningstrength returns, I became fully endowed to tell all the sick and afflicted in the most forceful way that with thestrength of the brain recharged by sleep is all the labor of the day performed, and that no labor is so taxingupon human muscles that it cannot be performed longer without fatigue when the breakfast is omitted

That this is possible came to me as a great surprise and in this way: a farmer with a large assortment of

ailments came to me for relief through drugs He was simply advised to take coffee mornings, rest mainlyduring forenoons, and when a normal appetite and power to digest would come he would be able to work afterresuming his breakfasts This man, who was more than fifty years old, was the first manual laborer to beadvised to observe a morning fast

Several months after, he came to me with news that his ailing had all departed, and that he had been able to doharder work on his coffee breakfasts than ever before with breakfasts of solids And if he so worked withpower during forenoons, why not others? Why not all?

This no-breakfast plan was so contagious that I was not long in finding that farmers in all directions werebeginning to go to their labors with much less food in their stomachs than had been their wont, and in all caseswith added power of muscle

Only recently three farmers went into the field one hot morning to cradle oats, the most trying of all work onthe farm; two of them had their stomachs well filled with hearty foods With profuse sweating and water bythe quart because of the chemical heat arising from both digestion and decomposition, these toiled through thelong hours with much weariness The third man had all his strength for the swinging of the cradle, the emptystomach not even calling for water; with the greatest ease he kept his laboring friends in close company andwhen the noon hour came he was not nearly so tired as they

A man who had been a great sufferer from indigestion, a farmer, found such an increase of health and strengthfrom omitting the morning meal that he became able to cradle rye, a much heavier grain than oats, during anentire forenoon "on an empty stomach." Later he went from one December to the following April on one dailymeal, and not only with ease, but with a gain in weight in addition During these months this man did all thework usual in farm-houses, besides riding several hours over a milk route during the forenoons

In this city resides a carpenter, formerly subject to frequent sicknesses, who for the past five years has walkednearly a mile to the shop where he is employed without even as much as a drink of water for breakfast; andthis not only without any sicknesses, but with an increase in weight of fifteen pounds also

More than a dozen years ago a farmer who was not diseased in any way, but who had been in the habit ofeating three times a day at a well-spread table, and at mid-forenoon taking a small luncheon for

hunger-faintness, omitted his breakfast and morning luncheon, and has been richly rewarded since then inescaping severe colds and other ailings He conclusively felt that his forenoon was the better half of the dayfor clear-headedness and hard labor; he has added nearly a score of pounds to his weight, and his case hasbeen a wonder to all his farmer friends, who see only starvation in cutting down brain and needless stomachtaxing

I must now ask the reader to bear with me while I apply the principles of this new hygiene with a good deal ofreiteration, trying to vary them in utterance as far as possible The need of daily food is primarily a matter ofwaste and supply, the waste always depending upon the amount of loss through the general activities, manuallabor being the most destructive

Across the street from where I live a new house is being built: for many days during the chilly, windy month

of March several men have been engaged high in the air, handling green boards, studs, and joists for ten hourseach day; and yet these men are not eating more food daily than hundreds of brain-workers who never havegeneral exercise The workmen across the street eat to satisfy hunger; the brain-workers, to satisfy the sense ofrelish; and the meals of the latter are habitually in excess of the real demands because of wasted bodies

In spite of the apparent overeating of the brain-worker, I believe the farmer and the manual laborer breakdown at an earlier age, for the reason that they overwork and generally eat when too tired to digest fully: thefarmer is rarely content to do one day's work in one day when the crop season invites him to make the most offair days

With successes rapidly multiplying in all directions within my circuit, the desire became urgent for some way

to make my new hygiene known to the public My first thought was to get some eminent divine interestedthrough a cure that would compel him to a continual talk as to how he became saved

At a great denominational meeting in Chicago I chanced to hear a splendid address from a sallow-facedprofessor of a divinity school, the Rev Dr G W N.; and after a great deal of reflection I resolved, withoutconsulting him, to write him a series of letters on health culture, hoping that he would become so immediatelyinterested as to permit me a complete unfolding of my theory and practice.

I began the series, taking all the chances to be considered a crank; they were continued until the end withoutresponse, when later I received a brief note with sarcasm in every line At least my letters had been read; for

he informed me that he had no confidence in my theory, giving me a final summing up with his estimate thatthere were more "cranks" in the medical profession than in any other I was not in the least cast down at thislong-range estimate, since I had become quite used to close-at-hand ridicule

There was before me the unknown time when a still more eminent D D would both accept and practise mytheory, and also give the world his estimate in an elaborate preface to a book that in the fulness of time theways opened to me to write and have published

I was sent for by a man who had become a moral and physical wreck, his body being reduced to nearly askeleton condition from consumption As he was taking an average of two quarts of whiskey per week, Iaccepted the charge of his case with reluctance

I was not able in any way to change his symptoms for the better; there had been no hint of hunger for manyweeks, and the mere effort to swallow or even taste the most tempting dainties was painful to witness He wastaken with a severe pain in his side, which was fully relieved with the hypodermic needle, and there followedseveral hours of general comfort and no desire for the alcoholic Seeing this I was strongly impressed that bycontinuing the dosings for a time the seared stomach might get into a better condition and the fast be followed

by a natural hunger

This is what actually followed: in about a week the dosings were reduced to mere hints, and without anydesire for stimulants there came a desire for broiled steak and baked potatoes, which were taken with great

relish Thence on this was mainly the bill of fare, and the half-filled bottle remained on his table untouched,

undesired; and in time there were added more than a score of pounds to his wasted body

Now it chanced that this regenerative work was seen day after day by his friend, who was badly in need of anall-round treatment to meet the needs of his case; he was a man of keen intellect, of real ability of both mindand muscle Becoming deeply interested in the theory behind the miracle he saw unfolding day after day, andall the more because of a total extinction of the drink-habit that was deep seated through long duration, hebegan to omit his morning meals

He saw more than his own case He had been a manager of book agencies, and when he found also his desirefor the cigar undergoing a rapid decline, he became possessed with the idea that a book might be written onthe subject The time came when he could sit down in the office of the Henry Bill Publishing Company,Norwich, Conn., a picture of health, to interview Mr Charles C Haskell on the subject of publishing a book

Mr Haskell had known him in less healthful years, and he marvelled at the change

I had duly suggested, and with great emphasis, that no publisher would listen to him unless he were sickenough to be interested in the theory and would give a test by actual trial He found Mr Haskell in very lowhealth Experts had sent him on a tour through Europe in search of that health he failed to find; his body wasstarving on three meals a day that were not digested, and he began to arrange his affairs with reference to anear-at-hand breakdown

To this man was made such an appeal as men are rarely able to make, because a regenerated life was alsovocal in utterance To him a miracle seemed to have been wrought, and he listened to each word as if to areprieve from a death seemingly inevitable

As there was no disease of the stomach, it required only a few days for Mr Haskell to acquire so much of newlife that he felt as one born again, and a week had not passed before I had his earnest request to put my

hygiene into a book, he taking all chances of failure

He began to advise all ailing friends to give up their breakfasts or to fast until natural hunger came, gettingmany marvellous results One of his first thoughts was to have the forthcoming book introduced by someeminent divine who could write through the inspiration of experience

In a visit to Norwich of that evangelist of world-wide eminence, George F Pentecost, D D., then of London,Eng., the opportunity came, and for a case of "special conversion" he was made the guest of Mr Haskell He

was easily persuaded to the system, and his need is expressed in the following from the introduction of The True Science of Living, which was actually written without his having read a single line of the manuscript.

"Taking the theory upon which this system of living is based into account and even to my lay mind it seemedmost reasonable and the testimony which I personally received from both men and women, delicate andbiliously strong, workingmen, merchants, doctors, and preachers, delicate ladies for years invalided and in astate of collapse, and some who had never been ill, but were a hundred per cent better for living without

breakfast, I resolved to give up my breakfast I pleaded at first that it might be my luncheon instead, for I have

all my life enjoyed my breakfast more than any other meal But no! it was the breakfast that must go So on acertain fine Monday morning I bade farewell to the breakfast-room For a day or two I suffered slight

headaches from what seemed to me was the want of food; but I soon found that they were just the dying pains

of a bad habit After a week had passed I never thought of wanting breakfast; and though I was often present

in the breakfast-rooms of friends whom I was visiting, and every tempting luxury of the breakfast was spreadbefore me, I did not desire food at all, feeling no suggestion of hunger Indeed now, after a few months, thethought of breakfast never occurs to me I am ready for my luncheon (or breakfast if you please) at oneo'clock, but am never hungry before that hour

"As for the results of this method of living, I can only relate them as I have personally experienced them:

"1 I have not had the first suggestion of a sick headache since I gave up my breakfast From my earliestboyhood I do not remember ever having gone a whole month without being down with one of these attacks,and for thirty years, during the most active part of my life, I have suffered with them oftentimes, more or less,every day for a month or six weeks at a time, and hardly ever a whole fortnight passed without an acute attackthat has sent me to bed or at least left me to drag through the day with intense bodily suffering and mentaldiscouragement

"2 I have gradually lost a large portion of my surplus fat, my weight having gone down some twenty pounds,and my size being reduced by several inches at the point where corpulency was the most prominent; and I amstill losing weight and decreasing in size

"3 I find that my skin is improving in texture, becoming softer, finer, and more closely knit than heretofore

My complexion and eyes have cleared, and all fulness of the face and the tendency to flushness in the headhave disappeared

"4 I experience no fulness and unpleasantness after eating, as I so often did before As a matter of fact,though I enjoy my meals (and I eat everything my appetite and taste call for) as never before, eating with zest,

I do not think I eat as much as I used to do; but I am conscious of better digestion; my food does not lie solong in my stomach, and that useful organ seems to have gone out of the gas-producing business

"5 I am conscious of a lighter step and a more elastic spring in all my limbs Indeed, a brisk walk now is apleasure which I seek to gratify, whereas before the prescribed walk for the sake of exercise was a horriblebore to me

"6 I go to my study and to my pulpit on an empty stomach without any sense of loss of strength mentally orphysically on the other hand, with freshness and vigor which is delightful In this respect I am quite sure that

I am in every way advantaged."

Rev George Sherman Richards, after more than fifteen years of frequent severe headaches that were supposed

to be due to heredity, has had entire freedom during the five years of the No-breakfast Plan He can hardly besurpassed as a picture of perfect health

One of the first prominent converts who finally surrendered to Mr Haskell, whose persistence was beyond

fatigue, was the editor of the Norwich, Conn., Bulletin, a special friend There was no want of conviction on

his part, but the evil day to begin the morning fast was continually postponed Finally, one morning when hewas specially busy and charged with impatience, the beaming and hopeful face of Mr Haskell appeared Saidthe busy man, "Mr Haskell, if you will walk right out of that door, I will promise you to begin tomorrowmorning to do without breakfasts." Mr Haskell walked out the breakfasts were given up, and some yearslater I was personally informed that he believed that his life had been saved thereby

[Illustration: REV GEORGE SHERMAN RICHARDS,

Rector of Christ Church, Meadville, Pa.]

One of the expedients was to send a circular about the book to every foreign missionary of every

denomination, and as a result one of these fell into the hands of Rev W E Rambo, in India He had become amere shadow of his former self from ulcerated bowels, the sequel of a badly treated case of typhoid fever Forseven months there had been daily movements tinged with blood; the appetite was ravenous, and large mealswere taken without any complainings from the stomach Before a well-spread table his desire to eat wouldbecome simply furious, and it was indulged regardless of quality and quantity His brain system had become

so exhausted that reason and judgment had no part in this hurricane of hunger

There were seven successive physicians in this case, some of them with many titles The first one he called on

reaching New England cut his food down to six bland meals daily All of them had tried to cure the offending

ulcers by dosings Think whether bleeding ulcers on the body would get well with their tender surfacessubjected to the same grinding, scratching process from bowel rubbish!

He was in condition on his arrival to lose six pounds during the first week of six "bland" daily meals After

reading the True Science of Living he discharged his physician and came under my personal care These ulcers

were treated with the idea of giving them the same rest as if each had been the end of a fractured bone Torelieve pain, to hold the bowel still, and to abolish the morbid hunger, a few doses with the hypodermic needlewere a seeming necessity

In less than two weeks this starving man of skin and bones was relieved of all symptoms of disease, and thereseemed a moderate desire for food of the nourishing kind Less than two weeks were required for all thoseulcers to become covered with a new membrane: but for full three weeks only those liquid foods were giventhat had no rubbish in them to prove an irritant to the new, delicate membrane covering the ulcers For a timeafter the third week there was only one light daily meal, with a second added when it seemed safe to take it

In a little more than three months there was a gain of forty-two and a half pounds of flesh, as instinct withnew, vigorous life as if freshly formed by the divine hand My last word from this restored man was after he,his wife, and four children had been back in India for a year and a half, where they were all living on thetwo-meal plan without any sicknesses, and he had a class of one hundred and sixty native boys on the sameplan

Who can fail to see the science and the sense to relieve all diseases of the digestive tract? There are no cases

of hemorrhoids not malignant in character, in which total relief will not be the result if fasts are long enough;

no cases of anal fistula that will not finally close if they can have that rest from violence that is their onlyneed; and equally all ulcers and fissures that make life a history of torture

No case with structural disease of any part of the digestive tract not malignant has yet come under my care inwhich there has not been a cure, or in which there has not been a cure in sight Through a fast we may let thediseased parts in the digestive tract rest as we would a broken bone or wound on the body

Several missionaries have regained health on these new lines, who have returned to preach and practise alarger gospel than before One returned from the Congo region of Africa with such wreckage of health as tomake any active service impossible Mr Haskell met him in New York, and in time he returned with

twenty-four missionaries, all as converts to the new gospel of health, and to have that sustained health onlypossible through a larger obedience to the laws of God "manifest in the flesh" obedience that takes intoaccount the moral science, the physics and the chemistry of digestion

These and those others who have had their lives redeemed from lingering death through the simple, easy ways

of Nature never suffer their enthusiasm to wane Not to volunteer aid when unintentional suicide is going onseems nothing less than criminal

As a means to better health the utility of the morning fast is beyond estimate In all other modes of healthculture there is a great deal of time consumed in certain exercises that are certain to be given up in time Whatthe busy world requires is a mode to gain and maintain the health that requires neither time nor thought onethat is really automatic

We arise in the morning with our brain recharged by sleep, and we go at once about our business If we take awalk or go to the gymnasium, we simply waste that much time, and we also lessen the stored-up energy bywhatever of effort is called out We can skip the dumb-bells and perform any other kind of exercise that isgood for the health; and always with the certainty that we shall have more strength for the first half of the day

if none is wasted in this way As a matter of mere enjoyment, walks in fresh air are beneficial, but not as anenforced exercise for the reason of health

For the highest possibilities for a day of human service there must be a night of sound sleep; and then one maywork with muscle or with mind much longer without fatigue if no strength is wasted over untimely food in thestomach, no enforced means to develop health and strength When one has worked long enough to becomegenerally tired there should be a period of rest, in order to regain power to digest what shall be so eaten as tocause the brain the least waste of its powers through failure to masticate

One need not always wait until noon to eat the first meal Those in good health have found that they can easily

go till noon before breaking the fast; but in proportion as one is weak or ailing the rule should be to stop allwork as soon as fatigue becomes marked, and then rest until power to digest is restored To eat when one istired is to add a burden of labor to all the energies of life, and with the certainty that no wastes will be restoredthereby

For the highest efforts of genius, of art, of the simplest labors of the hands, the forenoon with empty stomachand larger measure of stored-up energy of the brain is by far the better half of the day; and, more than this, it

is equally the better for the display of all the finer senses of the tastes, the finer emotions of soul life Inaddition to these and what is vastly more important it is by far the better half of the day for the display ofthat energy whereby disease is cured All this with no power lost in any special exercise for the health!

The time to stop the forenoon labor is when the need to rest has become clearly apparent; and there must berest before eating, to restore the energy for digestion This always determines Nature's time when the firstmeal shall be taken, and not the hour of the day

This is especially important to all who are constitutionally weak or have become disabled through ailings ordisease Disappointments have come to hundreds who have given up breakfasts, because of the mistaken ideathat they must wait till noon before breaking the fast, and hence had become too tired to digest; and thereforeexperienced a loss rather than a gain from the untimely noon meals.

The desire for morning food is a matter of habit only Morning hunger is a disease under culture, and theywho feel the most need have the most reason to fast into higher health They who claim that their breakfastsare their best meals; that they simply "cannot do one thing" until they have eaten, are practically in line withthose who must have their alcoholics before the wheels can be started

Now it has been found by the experience of thousands that by wholly giving up the morning meal all desirefor it in time disappears, which could hardly be the case if the laws of life were thereby violated; and the habitonce fully eradicated is rarely resumed

To give up suddenly the use of alcoholics or of tobacco in any of its forms is to call out loudest protests fromthe morbid voices that have been kept silent by those soothing powers; and yet no one would accept thoseloud cries as indicating an actual physiological need The difficulties arising from giving up the morningmeals even as those from giving up the morning grog are an exact measure of the need that they shall begiven up in order that health, and not disease, shall be under culture

I once heard a Rev Mrs tell a large audience of ministers that for more than a week she spent most of herforenoons in bed to endure better the headaches and other angry, protesting voices that were averse to theno-breakfast plan She won her case, and thence on a hint of headache or other morbid symptoms was a matter

of humiliation and fasting, with prayer for forgiveness and for greater moral strength against the temptations

of relish

With many people the breaking of the breakfast habit costs only less of will-power than is called out byattempts to break the alcoholic or tobacco habit; but by persistence a complete victory is certain for all, andthe forenoons become a luxury of power in reserve

Now, I must warn all that very many persons who adopt the No-breakfast Plan are disappointed, because theyhave become chronic in the ways of unwitting sin: they are like thin-soiled farms long-cropped without soilculture Harvests in either case can only come by the study and practice of the laws of nutrition

The besetting sin against all such ailing mortals, the lines of whose lives are frequently of the hardest, is thatthe friends all oppose cutting down the daily food from the dreadfully mistaken impression that weakness anddebility from disease are the measure of the need to eat, not the measure of the inability to digest

Scores of times I have been written to by this class of patients as to their troubles from friends in this way.Scores of times I have been consulted as to the safety of this method in daily living for the old, as if it were atax upon the constitutional powers to stop sinning against them! As well ask whether one may get too old as

to make it dangerous to cut down daily whiskey or daily labor that is clearly beyond the reasonable use of thepowers

Those who are the victims of chronic diseases and have become greatly enfeebled by overwork of body, mind,

or stomach, will have to work out their salvation with most discouragingly slow progress; but not to work, not

to try, is to invite the processes of disease culture

Now, as to the time when that first meal of the day shall be taken Since the best meal of the day in all

America with the great majority of the people is at noon, this time may well be selected as the most fitting.Since the man of muscle loses no time in taking his breakfast, he should be able with good sense to rest anhour before this noon meal

Those whose general energies give out earlier in the morning and do not care to have general meals prepared

in advance of the usual hour, can put in the time in the best possible way by resting into power of relish anddigestion, the evil of eating when tired being that the exhausted feeling is only increased

Now think what forenoons may be had with no time lost over breakfasts, none in thinking about the health or

in doing anything for it, and not only to have the best and strongest use of the reason, judgment, and muscles,but also to have the best possible conditions for the cure of ailings! Think, too, what it would be to the

mothers of the land not to have any need to go into their kitchens until the time to prepare the noon mealarrived!

Can children while growing rapidly do without breakfasts? They certainly can without a hint of discomfort,and be all the better for it in every way

A few months ago I spent some hours in Illinois, where the no-breakfast plan had been practised for twoyears When the plan was begun there was a pale, delicate mother of four children, who was enduring a lifethat had no cheer During the first year the battle was a severe one, not a little aggravated by the assurance ofall sympathetic friends that resulting evil was making its mark on all the lines of expression; but health withits life and color finally came to silence the uttered disapproval

There was a boy in the home who was subject to the severest headaches every week, and who was muchwasted in his body when he began: he had become robust and wholly relieved of all his ailings There was aplump, rosy-cheeked girl of fourteen who for a year had taken only one daily meal, and yet a better nourishedbody I never saw

Now in this family the only warm, general meal, and this a plain one, was at noon The evening meal wasentirely of bread and butter taken without even a sitting at the table What happy, healthy children they were!And the mother was in a great deal better health to do all the work of the kitchen: work, she strongly asserted,which was not nearly half of what it formerly was For her there was a cure, a great increase of strength, and agreat reduction of the most taxing of all the duties of the home-life

If there is such a thing as an attack of disease, it cannot occur in the forenoon when there is an empty stomachand all the powers are at their best for resisting disease; and where children are fed as these are, disease, acute

or chronic, is only a remote possibility

I belong to a family of seven; the oldest is beyond seventy, the youngest beyond fifty This No-breakfast Planhas been very closely adhered to with all for not less than twelve years, and during this time not one of us hashad any acute sickness; and I am not aware that any have diseases of the chronic kind

The accompanying illustration is that of Mrs E A Quiggle, sister of the Author, after twelve years' trial ofThe No-breakfast Plan

[Illustration: MRS E A QUIGGLE,

Chicago, Ill.]

IX

The utility of eating with thoroughness is strongly illustrated in the following cases:

Mr Horace Fletcher, the author and traveller, took to the one-daily-meal plan to cut down his abnormalweight, having the patience to masticate all sense of taste from each mouthful before swallowing I saw himafter he had been on this plan for some months: there had been a weight loss of some forty pounds; a nasal

catarrh of many years had been cured, and he strongly asserted that in every way he felt himself twenty-fiveyears younger.

He had been living a week on baked potatoes for experimental reasons when I met him, and without

experiencing any morbid sensations: a more perfect specimen of physical health I never gazed upon To all

dyspeptics who are willing to work for their health through pains and patience, his little work, Glutton or Epicure, is strongly recommended.

A dyspeptic from Vermont came to me who for ten years had eaten three hearty meals daily, none of whichhad ever satisfied his hunger He was in a very low mental state when he came, and feeble in body: for fullyten years both himself and physician had held the stomach accountable for all its complainings, and with nothought of avoidable cause

I put him on one meal a day, as there was still some power of digestion, and with the following list for thedaily bill of fare: baked potatoes well buttered, bread and butter, beans dressed with butter, fish or lamb chops,and rice or oatmeal only if strongly desired; all sugar foods debarred, and no drinks except water as thirstcalled for it between the meals The constipated bowels were permitted their own times for action The

mouthfuls were small and far apart like dashes between words not less than forty-five minutes were spent inmasticating Very soon there was a general rousement of new life in every way His first surprise was in anunwonted sense of relish and a complete sating of hunger long before he had eaten the old-time amounts.There was a fresh revelation to me in this, as I had not before been so impressed that by slow eating thehunger-spell is also dissipated in part by time, and hence there is much less danger of eating to excess Hungercomes in part from habit, and it is appeased, with or without eating, with equal completeness The

hunger-habit can be trained to come at almost any fixed time

Not long since I read of a farmer who kept his horses in apparently perfect condition on one feeding, and only

at night: they had become so trained that they had no desire for food until their labors were over At night theyboth ate and rested, and made good the waste of the day; they were fully nourished and rested by morning,and could labor all the forenoon without loss of energy diverted to digestion: at noon they would rest becomestrong for the labors of the day

There can be no doubt, I think, that the strongest sense of hunger at the regular eating-time could be dissipated

by a fast not longer in duration than that of an ordinary meal-time

My patient's bowels gave no hint of their locality until the eighteenth day, when they acted with little effort;

on the twenty-fourth day again in a perfect way, and thereafter daily The mind became ecstatic throughperfect relief from mental and physical depression; there were no wants for other than those simple foods, and

at the end of a month he left me with new views as to Nature's power of selection to meet her needs and of thevast utility of using both time and food to dissipate hunger

The waste with most people is so small that the cost of the food, the cost of time in preparation, could bereduced to a startling fraction if the need could be actually known, and the pleasures of the palate increased by

an inverse ratio There is no redemption for women on the earth who have the care of kitchens except throughsimpler, smaller meals meals so very far apart that there shall be a maximum of the hunger-sense of relishand the resulting maximum of power to convert them into tissues instinct with life

It may be that the waste is so very trifling, especially with brain-workers, that one may be a vegetarian,fruitarian, or even an eater of pork, without positive violence to practical physiology There is this further verypractical consideration, that when Nature is so fairly dealt with that she can speak in natural tones she will callonly for those foods easily available along geographical lines

There is this to be said about fruits, that all those containing acids decompose the gastric juice, as they allcontain potash salts in union with fruit acids As soon as they reach the stomach the free hydrochloric acid ofthe gastric juice unites with the potash, setting the fruit acid free to irritate the stomach There is never anydesire for acid fruits through real hunger, especially those of the hyperacid kinds: they are simply taken togratify that lower sense relish.

The tropical fruits are without acids, and therefore are well adapted to a class of people who have only theleast use for muscle and brains Acid fruits can only be taken with apparent impunity by the young and old,who can generate gastric juice copiously Because of the general impression that they are healthful and no tax,human stomachs are converted into cider-mills at will, regardless of between meal-times By their ravishingflavor and apparent ease of digestion apples still play an important part in the "fall of man" from that higherestate, the Eden without its dyspepsia

What shall we eat? The fig-leaved savage under his bread-fruit tree, the fur-clad Eskimo in his ice-hut, neednot be asked: the needed food is in all due supply with little cost of muscle and less of mind and he has nomental condition that can disturb the digestion

The simpler waste-restoring foods have a flavor of their own that needs little reinforcement if developed bydue mastication and with adequate hunger In my own case butter duly salted seems to be my only naturalappetizer aside from hunger; and yet I must own that at times new honey has a wonderful effect on the

X

Some of the external evidences of that general regeneration which comes through Nature will now be given

We will study the human face as we study the earth when the favoring conditions of Spring rouse all Nature tonewness of life The face shall be our human landscape

I select a face in which the eyes are dull from debility, in which there is no sparkle of soul, and beneath are thedark venus-hanging clouds The face has a dull, lifeless cast; the veins are all enlarged from debility, andcover the larger arteries as with a mourner's pall, save where there are patches as of clouds on fire, wheredisease of the skin enlivens the drear landscape There are pimples large and small, some with overflowingvolcanoes; there are no lines of expression: these are changed to lines of morbid anatomy We listen, and thereare no echoes of departed joys; look as we will, and we see no evidence of the existence of a soul

The ultimate of this picture is death from unrecognized suicide; death, a slow dying to every sense that madelife worth living There is this about these deaths that go on through the months and years: they exaggerate theworst instincts of the soul as it is dragged down down through brain-wasting largely avoidable if only

understood

The instant result of a total suspension of the use of the brain power in the digestive tract is the evolution oflife: new life is sent to the remotest cell as by an electric charge The nutrient vessels of the eye tone down insize, and there is polish, sparkle where there was only dimness; and on the face the venus clouds, black andred, begin to disappear; the toning of the veins condenses the skin, and thereby the ruddy arteries are

uncovered, and a color that has life appears; the pimples, the hillocks, even have a brighter look as they slowly

shrink from sight Finally, the skin becomes of a plush-like texture, soft, condensed, and with tints that

compare as the tints of flowers with the faded colors of the house-painter, or as the matchless tint and plush ofthe perfect peach to the spotted, colorless, wilted, degenerated representative awaiting the garbage-barrel; andthe cherry lips, the cherry gums, and the whiter teeth Nature does not match them otherwheres

Landscape gardening upon the human face has the largest, most inspiring possibilities; and there are no eyes

so dull, no faces so void of light and life, no skin degraded to a parchment, for a public display of an assortedcollection of evidences of physical poverty, in which these changes to a higher life are not in some degreeeasily possible

Face culture becomes of the profoundest interest when it is realized that whatever there is in eyes and lines ofexpression that reveals a soul in higher life, whatever there is in softness and delicacy of texture, in color that

is alive with life, is only the external revelations of the higher life within Nature is always at work over herwaste places, whether about the roots in the mouth, or in the depths of the organs; and the aches, the pains ofthe living, and the agonies of the dying are only evidences of the earnestness and persistence of her efforts toright all her wrongs

In what ways are drugs available in this kind of landscape culture; how sent through the crystalline structures

of the eye with clearing effect; how to polish the retina and the surfaces to a sparkle? What drugs for suchculture? And yet the materia medica needs a hoist to place it on the shelf These external changes that becomeclearly apparent to even dull eyes are the changes that also go on in the very depths of diseased structure, inall the special senses, in all those higher instincts and tastes that make man the best for self, for home, Stateand Nation the image of his Creator Is this high estate ever reached through dosage?

Let this matter be again considered In the days of the lancet, roots and herbs, of bleedings and sweatings, offevers without water for parched tongues, throats, and stomachs, Nature had no part in the cure of disease inthe professional or lay mind, except in rare instances in which there were those specially gifted with insight aswell as eyesight

Now such barbarism was inflicted with intense force of conviction, and it was patiently endured with thelargest faith When a mere child I was a witness of the bleeding treatment upon my mother of saintly memory,and my child hands carried into the back yard nearly a quart of blood drawn for a bilious attack that lasted but

a few days

There is this to be taken into account in the dose treatment of diseases that most cases recover regardless ofthe time of treatment, even whether it is the most crucifying or whether there is no dosing Therefore, the goodeffect of dosing is at best a matter of hazy inference, where real evidence is not possible The lack of

uniformity in the character and times of doses for similar diseases is a burlesque on science What would atext-book on chemistry be worth with nothing more in the way of demonstrative evidence than we find in ourmateria medica in the summing up of the "medical properties" of drugs

In modern times homoeopathy has come in as a protest against the drawing of blood and the administration ofdrugs that corrode For a form of skin disease sulphur has been given by the teaspoonful by my brethren of the

"regular" school; with equal faith, my brethren of the homoeopathic school will give the fraction of a grainwhose denominator will cross an ordinary page: at which extreme is the science of dosage, if any; or wherebetween? I can hardly resist the conclusion that faith in dosage is, by as much, inability for the deduction ofscience

"I know whereof I believe," is the language of Science "I believe," is the language of credulity with all theways back to cause too hazy for the perception of even the assuring guide-boards Said that prince of

American humorists, Artemus Ward, "I have known a man who drank one drink of whiskey every day, andyet lived to be one hundred years old; but do not believe, therefore, that by taking two drinks a day you will